


Look forward

by SrebrnaFH



Series: Double Pride Double Trouble - series [12]
Category: Das doppelte Lottchen | Lottie and Lisa - Erich Kästner, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Billionaires will not save us, Engagement, Everyday work, F/M, Family, Graduation, Not Really Character Death, Self-Esteem Issues, Sisters, Sleeping Together, Slice of Life, Taxes, Teddy being Teddy, Twins, University, Wedding preparation, Year overview, Young Love, just sleeping together, seaside cottage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 41,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25568212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SrebrnaFH/pseuds/SrebrnaFH
Summary: Mina and Teddy, Rose and Andre. And their next 4,5 years.
Relationships: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, OC - Mina Bennet/OC - Teddy Strickland, OC - Rose Darcy/OC - Andrew de Bourgh
Series: Double Pride Double Trouble - series [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1273559
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	1. Year One

**Author's Note:**

> This story kind of happened as an answer to "but what happened in the meanwhile" when I was writing... the next one.  
> So, with some wonderful support from meryton.com/aha friends I wrote this.  
> Next 4,5 years of our dearest children. And their families.

####

**Looking forward – Year One**

####

_January._

####

"Mina! You were supposed to be done by four!"

She jerked to attention from over the papers she was reading.

"Crap," someone giggled. "In trouble with the boss already."

Not everyone was receptive of the owner's daughter being suddenly given an official position in the office, but, well, 'Mister Darcy's money was his own'. And 'the kid was at least quiet'.

She was quiet, which is why she had heard these opinions exchanged by the watercooler without them noticing she even was there.

Mina could only shrug and work on making them believe she was supposed to be there, on her own merit.

"Take them and let's go," Dad tapped the files on her desk. "I'll drive you to Derby."

There was a weekend bag on the back seat of the car, and now her backpack joined it, as she slid into the passenger's seat.

"Where do you have the change?"

"In Birmingham, around seven."

"What time do you get to Southampton?"

"Half past nine."

"And you will—?"

"Text you that I'm there and take a taxi to that hotel we've booked. Dad...!"

"Be safe, kitten," he said simply.

"I— I will. Dad, I'm visiting Teddy, not hunting tigers."

"All the same."

####

" _Hey, Starlight. I was just about to call you, when should I pick you up at the station? Don't tell me you took a night train...!"_

She looked around the breakfast room and didn't see anyone staring too much.

"I might already be here?" she offered with a small smile. "Um. Dad drove me to Derby yesterday and put me on the train, so we could have like, an actual full weekend? And I'm supposed to go back only on Monday morning..."

" _Mina...?_ "

"I'm in a hotel called... 'room2', however silly that sounds. Dad did some checking and they have good reviews—"

_"You're in town already."_

"Yep. Eating breakfast and watching people in the park across the street. I've just pinged you the location — unless we should meet somewhere else?"

_"I'll be there in twenty minutes."_

_Shit._

She finished her tea quickly, devoured the last croissant and ran back to her room to clean herself up a bit. A swift change of her shirt (from one covered with croissant crumbs to a clean one), a check of her hair (braided into two short tails, still no flyaway strands, good enough), fetch her winter coat, take a fortifying breath—

And there was Teddy, in the lobby, waiting, looking like a goddamned recruitment poster for — basically for whatever, because if someone put Teddy on the poster, people would join, no matter the cause.

"I hope you are prepared to be my guide today, Mister Strickland."

He caught her lips in a short kiss and offered her his arm.

"Allow me to show you the area, Miss Darcy. I know some particular places you will definitely enjoy."

####

_February_

####

"Mina! It's four!"

"Damn," she murmured, saving everything. "Damn, damn, damn. OK. Coming!"

"Seriously though, what is she doing every other weekend?"

"Maybe training to take a curtsy in front of the Queen?"

_Like, seriously. People..._

Dad was already in the car, the heating on, full blast, waiting for her as she trotted across the parking lot.

"What are you planning this weekend?"

"Mostly sightseeing of the rest of the town. Teddy promised to show me the university campus and last time it was too windy to really do that."

"Mhm... Which is why you came back with a suitcase bursting with art supplies."

"Well, Alex certainly appreciated his new finger paints."

"That he did. Mom maybe a bit less, but at least they are washable. OK. Tell me what we have to push through this weekend to make the next one more bearable... And is Teddy coming?"

She felt her cheeks warming up, just a bit.

"He even got his school commander to approve him wearing the uniform."

"Well, well, well. That will be interesting."

"Yeah, so, other than that, not much— The cleaning crew is coming on Monday to deal with the ballroom, we have the rope and posts to block entrance to the work-in-progress parts of the house, and they will set this up, too. There will be some additional staff in the kitchens, since last time there were bottlenecks there— We're all set here."

"Good. My efficient second in command should be recognised for her effort."

"Just get your second in command to the train station on time and we'll be good."

####

The light dusting of snow added a feeling of winter fairyland to nearly anything, but the stark modern, sleek buildings did not look even remotely like anything from a fairy tale.

"I spend most of my time in these two," Teddy pointed out. "And in the cafe. Luckily they _do_ serve tea, unlike some others around here."

"And how far from here do you actually live?"

He waved somewhat to the north.

"Maybe ten minutes? Well, twenty. I make it in ten when I'm in a hurry..."

"Oh, that's nice. At least it's hard to be significantly late to classes."

"Well, happened a time or two, when I fell asleep over some assignment and—"

"Teddy—"

"I promise I try not to do this, but it was just— sometimes I planned stuff poorly. And it was just during the first year, OK? We can walk up there in a moment, just let me first show you the other side, the Highfield Campus. This is like the biggest, main part—"

She slipped her hand into his large, warm one and followed.

"We can definitely go and see it. But," she managed to add, "we'll need to do some shopping."

"There's a Sainsbury and a Co-op just down the street, but why?"

She smiled up at his slight frown.

"I'm cooking for you today, Teddy."

"B-but— why?"

She shrugged.

"Because I want to? Because I haven't had a chance to make anything on my own for the last two weeks and I'm _really_ craving lasagne al forno?"

He swallowed with effort.

"We can go shopping, sure."

####

"The auction went well."

"Dad excels in emotionally blackmailing his peers for money. The whole auction part — well, most of it — is just a cover, to make them look like they at least got something back from it and not just got manipulated into being charitable."

"I didn't catch the beginning... what was he saying about the county and town council?"

Mina sighed and tipped her head back onto his shoulder.

"He's pushing for a tax reform. Basically, 'tax the rich properly'."

"But— I mean, that would also apply to him, right?"

She nodded lazily.

"M-hm. To the property, to the holdings he has, accounts, all of that."

"—I don't get it."

"It's not as much about pushing to get these taxes higher, as it is about making them inevitable and requiring them to be paid, since as it is now, it's impacting the local offices' ability to plan the yearly budget. Like—" she clicked her tongue, looking for an example. "Let's say we had two large landowners in Lambton. One of them, let's call him Mister A, pays all his income, property, road etc etc etc taxes on time and in full. He writes off certain costs, as allowed by law, and then he just pays what he owes properly. The second one, maybe Mister... Z. Pays partially, in delay, finds writeoffs that don't really apply to him... The result is, the town council doesn't get the money to fix the school football court."

"Yeah, because they were planning for Mister Z to pay his taxes and he didn't."

"Exactly. So then, a local investor and building potentate, Mister A, gets fed up with the situation, and creates a charitable donation drive for this court to be renovated."

"I'm seeing a link here, go on..."

"And Mister Z happily pays a heap of money, making it a tax write-off, gaining himself a name of a benevolent benefactor, while secretly, in the background, smearing Mr A's name as the person whose company will probably deliver the renovation, because he supposedly got rid of the competition in the county."

"Wait— Seriously?"

"Rose explained that it has been going on like this for ages. The identity of Mr Z changes every few years — well, right now, see that guy by the window, who is talking _at_ the ladies— yeah, that smooth-faced rat in steel blue, he bankrupted his own company in order to get a tax reduction and fifty people ended up on unemployment, but now he's going around telling stories about Dad undercutting him— Anyway, Dad wants us, as a society, to move away from the model of charity stepping in where honest taxation would have worked, _had_ it been honest. He is not saying openly that people who don't pay proper taxes are stinking cheats, but he's making them know he's watching them."

"Damn. That's complicated."

"Yeah, I needed tutoring on this crap from Stacy and Dad. And this is just a generalised summary, the complex version is... complex. Anyway, there was that analysis, even some video on youtube I think, discussing whether the billionaires will save the world, and that's what Dad is more or less talking of. Hint: they won't."

"So, someone imitating Tony Stark and making a donation for a whole year of students to have their student debts loans go away...?"

"Would be an immediate relief, just like in the movies, but the correct way still is to create proper state and federal university funding instead, just like Secretary Warren finally did in real life. Anyway, we have our own problems around here, too, we don't need to look in the US for examples."

Teddy sighed and tightened his hold on her waist as they watched the crowd quietly.

"So— If everyone paid their taxes as they should, your Dad wouldn't be having these balls?"

"He would. It's a tradition, and it's one pretty hard to break. But they would be truly _additional_ things, like, like, new library storage for the school, or fancier computer lab, or the Kympton church getting their roof painted with anti-pigeon-shit paint."

"What."

"Well, Dad just paid for it last year, as it's historically part of our estate anyway, so we're like co-owners of the church building and grounds. And doing it this way is much cheaper than ordering the cleaning every three months and it's better for the wood and slate."

"OK. If you say so. Miss assistant estate manager."

####

_March_

####

"I haven't seen you for ages."

"Three weeks, Teddy. Only thr—mm."

"I _missed_ you."

"I can see! It was just a nasty cold, and Mom didn't want me to get on the train, and—"

"Starlight, the last thing I want you to do is to risk your health, OK?"

"M-hm."

Southampton in March was a mixed bag when it came to weather, but mostly wet, so they sat in Mina's well appointed hotel room and waited for the rain to pass.

Or rather, cuddled on the sofa.

Very much horizontally.

Until they fell asleep, waking up only when the lights outside switched on, flooding the room with blue and white coldness.

"Mina?"

"Mmhmm?"

"I think you should move. As in, off of me."

She blinked her eyes open.

"Wha'?"

"I'm trying to remain a gentleman here. You know. The kind of a guy that parents of his fiancee trust, yadda yadda. So I need you to _move_. Slowly."

"Oh. OK."

####

Mina's phone vibrated sharply just as she was finishing the presentation, but one look at the screen made her freeze.

"I'm sorry. This is from the emergency line at the house. Darcy speaking, what happened...?"

_"Miss Darcy, it's Laurens. There is sewer line damage in front of the house. Something blocked the mains or— The guys are working on it, and there is no immediate risk to the house, but it's not looking good, and pretty soon it's going to wash out on the road."_

"I'm calling the water company... wait, is it just from the house, or the bigger one...?"

The man on the other end sighed.

_"The main line by the road. If we can't stop it, it's going to turn nasty soon."_

"Crap. Literally. I'm sorry, everyone, but we seem to be having a septic kind of emergency on the worksite. Talk to me, Laurens. Is there a plumber there today?"

"I called him first, and the county road office too, since this part is on the public ground, but they said it's better if someone from the owner's side comes too, in case we need to get additional digs—"

"Fifteen minutes. I'm almost in my car now. Stacy, can you ping me any kind of details I need to know when dealing with a damaged sewer line? Who is responsible for what part and so on? Sammy, get in touch with a drainage subcontractor we are using, I need someone on site in Pemberley, now. And I mean, now...!"

"Yes, Miss Darcy!"

"You'll have the link in a moment, Mina— Should I call Mister Darcy?"

She grimaced. But Stacy was right.

"Yeah, if you could. I don't want to call when driving."

"Smart girl. Run, run."

####

_"I've seen the news from Lambton... I suppose you've had an adventurous day?"_

"You could call it that, I suppose— I'm sorry, I'd love to see you, but I just can't get there this weekend. I can barely lift a finger. I'll be sleeping for three days straight."

_"Not a problem, Starlight. Get some rest. I'll call you tomorrow."_

"Mhm... Tell me what plans you have for the weekend then?"

_"Ah, well. Some reading. Mostly the rulebooks, since next week I'm taking some tests at the base... Catching up with some laundry, I suppose. Maybe I could do some shopping, you know. Finally make use of your Christmas gift and cook something more complicated than three ingredients. By the way, what I wanted to ask you... what would a hard-working, dedicated estate manager want as her gift from the Easter Bunny?"_

She snorted weakly, not even able to laugh properly.

"I want a teddy bear," she mumbled finally. "A big one."

_"How big...?"_

"Six foot two? More or less..."

_"Ah, I see. We'll try to deliver, my lady."_

"See that you do, Strickland."

####

April

####

"Whoa."

One of the girls from Marketing stopped by the window, coffee cup barely held in loose fingers.

"What?"

"See this?"

"What... Damn."

"What are you all...?"

"Look."

Mina rubbed the bridge of her nose and pushed her new glasses up.

Apparently astigmatism decided that it was joining the estate management genes as something she inherited from Dad - unlike Rose, who escaped the necessity of correcting her sight despite having supposedly the same DNA.

_Would they shut up, please? I just need twenty more minutes on that report..._

"Look at these shoulders."

"Look at these thighs."

"Nah, I'd tap that arse—"

"You haven't seen his arse yet."

"Just you wait— Yeah."

"Arse wins."

"The bike is nice, too."

_Wait what._

Mina blinked awake.

_Finish the bloody report, Darcy, and you can drive to Matlock and pick up your fiance and—_

"Look at these abs."

"You can't see his abs."

"Because he's a snappy dresser, too. But I bet they have a lot in common with a washboard."

_Jesus Christ on a pogo stick!_

"You know that this actually borders on sexual harassment?" she sighed loudly. "Or at least on some vastly inappropriate behaviour. If he was an employee of ours, he'd have full right to go and complain to HR about you."

The female contingent by the window turned to her slowly as she took off her glasses and her not-really-noise-cancelling headphones and dug the heels of her palms into her eyes.

"I'd appreciate if you objectified whoever-that-is in the kitchen, behind closed doors. Optimally, I'd rather if you _didn't_ objectify him, obviously, but since it's Friday afternoon, I suppose the hope of having any kind of work done is nigh... Just consider this - what would any of you say if someone was talking about your boyfriend or son or brother in this way."

"Seriously..."

"Who does she think she is?"

"Owner's kid, that's who..."

The muttering disappeared behind the closed door, but Mina's brain was on the verge of a shutdown anyway.

"What was that?" Stacy entered with a stack of paperwork. "No, don't look at me like that, this is for Monday. Why does the marketing department look like they were taking part in lemon-sucking contest?"

"I told them to shut up about some beefcake they saw from the window. Seriously, objectifying a guy, at this day and age... Anyway. Leave this on Dad's desk, one of us will pick it up. Depending on the level of catastrophe at the site."

"What went wrong this week?"

Mina groaned.

"Nothing yet. But it has to. You know, the week before holidays. Probably on Thursday someone will cut through the main power line or something."

"No, because you'll be there to prevent it. Now, stop this, it won't get any better. And go. Get some sleep. Isn't that boy of yours coming home tomorrow?"

She felt a completely stupid smile pulling at her lips.

"Today, actually. I'm picking him up at the station. And we're taking a week off after holidays, too. Rose promised to help Dad in that time, so you may actually see her around the office, too."

"Good, you need to air your head out sometimes. Now scram, shoo. Go."

Mina picked up her backpack, secured the laptop to the safety leash, slung her spring jacket over her elbow, since it was much too warm for it already and scowled at the kitchen, where several of her coworkers were whispering loudly.

Two flights of stairs down, clock out, wave at the guard, push the door—

_Teddy._

He was just standing there, leaning on his bike, utterly absorbed in something he was reading - a thick stack of printouts—

She nearly tripped, but managed to gracefully save herself - just before being caught in Teddy's arms.

"You're here," she said, a bit stupidly.

"Yeah. Took a noon train and— Here I am."

"Here— Didn't you have the additional Italian on Fridays?"

"I promised _la professoressa_ I'd study in the evening. You could help me?"

"Teddy!"

He pulled her in closer and kissed her - rather thoroughly.

_Oh. Oh, well._

"You—"

"Me. Come on, hop on the bike. For once, I'm craving ice-cream."

"I don't have a helmet—"

"Starlight," he sighed and unclipped "her" dark teal helmet from where it had been hidden by the bulk of the bike. "I came prepared. Now, will you please get on the bike behind me, or is there something more...?"

She pulled him down into another thorough kiss.

"Which ice-cream shop?"

"The small one by the marketplace. Green something. They use old family recipes but they replace sugar with xylitol. Theresa swears it's like magic."

"Green Spoon?" she frowned. "'Traditional family recipes with a modern modification', something like this? I think they even got additional funding because they have an actual dairy-free section separated from the main store..."

"Don't tell me—"

"Dad had me review their application last summer."

"I'm starting to think I didn't know what I was doing when I proposed. Should I have kissed your Dad's ring, or something?"

"Dad doesn't wear a ring. And stop that, Theodore. It's not like he is the godfather and controls the whole county or something."

"So he won't have me taken out back and shot if I snog his daughter on the steps of her place of work?"

"Only if you make me unhappy. Then you can expect Retribution."

"Ah, I will try not to. Now, where were we?"

"Snogging. And then ice cream. Chop chop, Mister Strickland."

"Bossy."

"Assistant estate manager. It's in the job description."

"You're off the clock."

"But that doesn't mean you should delay the kissing part any more."

"Well, if you put it like this..."

He turned her around, boosted her to the bike seat and leaned in for another kiss. Mina looked over his shoulder and winced.

"Aaaaaand my whole office is watching us from the window and I'm going to die. I just noticed them playing algae eaters with the kitchen window. Ugh."

"How do you know they are watching _us_...?"

She hid her face in his chest.

"I just put this together. _They were ogling you_ ," she mumbled, mortified. "They were watching someone outside of our office - _you_ \- and they were commenting on your shoulders and legs and— butt. They liked the whole package. And the bike. And—"

"So— A group of your coworkers was talking about someone outside, apparently an attractive man, and you didn't even take a peek?"

"I'm— I'm in a committed relationship! With you, you stupid, attractive man!"

He smiled, quite widely. And kissed her again.

"Very well. What about that ice-cream then?"

####

William washed the last of his dinner down with some water and sat back, watching the table. Alex was making his way through a heap of his beloved yellow beans, Rose was convinced nobody could see her texting, Elizabeth was watching Mina, Mina was half-asleep on Teddy's shoulder and Teddy was refilling Mina's glass with water.

"I've had an interesting report from the office today."

Alex ignored him in favour of the beans.

Rose glanced from the screen at him and then at Mina.

Elizabeth frowned.

Mina blushed.

Teddy spilt some water on both of them.

"Dad—"

"Mister Darcy—"

"Stacy told me that my daughter has apparently found her courage and told the whole marketing and sales department off for being man-objectifying shrews."

The couple deflated minutely.

"Also, the head of marketing had reported that the same daughter had accosted a, quote, rather strikingly handsome man, end quote, on the sidewalk in front of the office, kiss-mauled him and then got on a bike with him, ordering him around all the while."

Teddy covered his face with both hands.

Rose giggled like a preschooler.

"Mina?"

"Mom— it was—"

"I came to pick Mina from work, and we just— talked? And then took a ride, went for ice-cream—"

"That must have been some talk," Rose snorted.

"As if you were any better," Mina retorted quickly.

Rose blushed and gasped.

"What?"

"I saw you two! I mean, I know that Teddy and I are obvious, but tell that de Bourgh beanpole that he isn't as inconspicuous as he might think he is!"

Elizabeth scrunched her nose.

"What are you two—"

"She's dating André."

"Since when exactly? I've thought they _had_ been dating before, but then there were these other boys, so I assumed I had been wrong—"

"André's been my best friend—after Mina!—but we've only started _dating_ this autumn—"

William coughed to hide his smile.

"And we didn't notice because first you weren't there, then Rose left, then she came back but we were mostly focusing on Mina and Teddy— Then Rose left again and only came home last week, which is when, I'm guessing, Mina had spotted them."

"So— I missed— Rose!?" Elizabeth's voice broke just a bit.

"Mom, it's OK, I never told anyone—"

"She's been trying to be sneaky about it. "

"Because I didn't want to hurt your feelings!"

"How the h— How in the world would _you_ dating _Andr_ _é_ hurt _my_ feelings!?"

Teddy cleared his throat.

"Starlight, they got together the weekend we— we, you know. Broke up. And no, André didn't tell me," he stopped Rose before she even made a sound. "I worked it out. Well, after he started a chat with 'Rose said yesterday' for the fifth time in a row, even I got the hint."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

Alex made an absolutely ghastly disgusting noise by slurping in the last piece of yellow bean from his plate.

"Dear Lord, that was nasty," Rose sighed. "Yeah. We— I was whining to him about life. Mostly. I didn't spill any of your secrets, OK? Just— needed a guy's perspective. And then we kind of— you know. Talked. And— And yeah. That."

Mina's shoulders sagged slightly.

"And I didn't want to tell you, because you were all so angsty and weepy and it seemed like— Like I was benefiting from your breakup— What are you doing, you stupid girl!?"

Mina was hugging the hell out of Rose, crying.

William decided that he'd have to pick the topic of inappropriate public displays of affection up at some other moment.

Or not at all.

####

The tiny room in the cosy little B&B didn't allow for the beds to maintain even an illusion of separation. In fact, the beds themselves were set up in such a way that— Well, the first morning they woke up with Mina curled up into a tiny ball and Teddy wrapped all around her, his left arm possessively holding her flush to him and the right serving as an additional pillow.

And it was just right.

Warm, safe.

The cocoon of their covers cut them off from everything and Mina felt like she was floating on a little puffy cloud.

"We should talk," Teddy murmured into the nape of her neck, warm breath washing over her skin.

"Really? I thought all we did over the last months was talking."

"Yes, about a lot of things," he pressed a kiss to her t-shirt clad shoulder. "But, considering we've been discussing our _future_ from all possible angles..."

"Your parents had A Talk with you."

"Dad, mainly. Mom is still in denial."

"And?"

"Good old 'don't do anything one of you would regret' and 'be careful with her' and also 'you know Mister Darcy will have you killed if you hurt her' which I assume could have been a joke, but I'm not entirely certain of that, considering what we talked about—"

She felt the soft huff of his laughter as he said it.

"Dad isn't much for playing the landlord and master of all he surveys, but Rose is still a threat. Mind you— Mom had a talk with me. And so did Rose. And then aunt Georgiana."

"And...?" he hugged her closer and she melted against the warm chest behind her.

"And I told each of them that I've already had an appointment with an OB, and that I know what I'm doing and that _we_ know what we are doing."

"And...?"

She sighed and leaned back, nuzzling into his shoulder.

"Just— I just don't get it. Why now, so suddenly?"

"Dad told me, and maybe it's the same with your side—" Teddy laughed. "They missed it. Like, we've been dating-or-not-dating since we were fourteen. And then we were sixteen and there was that little conversation your dad and mine had with me—"

"Don't remind me. Mom sat me and Rose down for the whole 'don't repeat our mistakes' lecture."

She shivered with an echo of that old dread, but Teddy's warm hand on her stomach was doing wonders to calm her down.

"Yeah. And that was it. Because they kind of— forgot? Went on by default? Thought it was enough? And then last year, we didn't see each other for weeks on end, so there was not much to talk about and—"

"They just left it alone."

"And Dad said that the whole— whole breakup, and then us getting back together, and the engagement, this made him think suddenly, what if we had— well, done more, and then broke up, and you'd end up pregnant and—"

"Oh my Goooood—" she groaned. "So they caught up to the possibility that we could have been having wild, uncontrolled, unprotected sex only when we had actually broken up?"

Teddy muffled his giggle in her shoulder.

"And they wouldn't have ever believed we were not having any."

"I don't think they would. We are twenty, in love, and stupid, according to most of our nearest relations," she yawned. "I mean, I didn't even try to explain it to all of my suddenly concerned elders - and I count Rose in their number. I just told them I'm on a pill, which I am, but really, it's nobody's business except yours and mine."

"Just yours," he corrected. "I mean, I heartily support whatever you pick, but the decision is all yours."

"What do you think they are assuming we'd be doing?"

"All the absolute worst," he murmured, sighing. "I'm not sure I feel good about it. All the same, I wouldn't shame someone our age for _having_ sex. Come on, probably most of our classmates at school already did it."

She twisted in his hold, turning to face him.

"Are you still OK with it?" she whispered. "I mean — if you—"

"Shush," he kissed her, bringing her closer. "I am. There is no way we are doing anything you are not comfortable with. And I like us like this. I get to hold you, sleep with you and just— be close. And I'd never ever sacrifice this for— just to get off. You're ready only when and if you're ready. There is no pressure."

"I love you."

"Love you too, Starlight."

"But—"

"No buts."

"Teddy."

"Shush. It's half past five. We're on vacation. Sleep."

"By the way, I never got that teddy bear I've been promised—"

"Well, it seems the biggest one I could find was barely four feet tall, so you will have to console yourself with me."

"Oh, well, if I must."

"I insist."

####

June

####

It was half past midnight and Mina was still up.

Because cake.

She tried and tried and—

It was all falling apart.

Too dry.

Too crumbly.

Too sweet.

She didn't trash them, she was too much of a child of economy, and that rankled even _more_. She was _wasting ingredients_.

"Fuck it."

The cool tabletop felt nice against her forehead.

She tried to stop the tears, but they _kept coming_.

She was useless, useless, hopeless, even a bloody cake was beyond her ability to make, a stupid stupid stupid cake...!

"Hey, hey, kitten. What's—"

Mom paused, looking around. Dirty dishes in the sink, a bag of flour, big mixer on the counter...

"Ah. How many?"

"Three."

"Do we have enough for two more tries?"

"M-hm?"

"Show me the recipe."

She pushed their "kitchen tablet" (sealed in plastic, with rubber cover) towards Mom.

"Thm, thm, thm... Something weird... Where did you find it?"

"We liked a cake we ate at that place in Bristol and— They post all recipes on their webpage and I tried and—"

"They converted it all wrong."

"W-what?"

Mom sighed and started making corrections on the recipe file.

"If you calculate it back to American measures, you'll find it's all in half-cups and cups, but only if you assume each cup is the same volume."

Mina knuckled her eyes and peered at the recipe.

And groaned.

"Yeah, let me check— Fits. They recalculated it through a cup of water measure, which is 225ml, which is 225 grams, but the same volume of flour is 180 grams, while 'a cup of flour' is something around 120 grams—"

Mom went on muttering as she converted the values back and forth. Mina sat with her head in her hands, allowing the sound to wash over her.

"Teddy's eating sweets these days?"

"Mhm. If I make them. Last time I baked that cheesecake he froze most of it and kept it like that — said he'd rather sin against his diet with my baking than with anything from the cafeteria or the commissary at the base."

"That sounds like love."

"Well. Love for my baking, that's for sure. Ouch!"

Mom brandished the roll of baking paper she had just smacked Mina with.

"Stop saying silly things. That boy loves you. Everyone can see that."

"Well, I'd rather reinforce that with a chocolate cake anyway."

####

From: Teddy

I'll have to put some kind of a lock on the box with the cake, some of my suite-mates have been eyeing it way too closely.

From: Mina

Or you could buy a little fridge for your room.

From: Teddy

That seems to be an overkill for just one cake.

From: Mina

Think of it as a future investment.

From: Teddy

Is this a promise or a warning?

From: Mina

That depends on whether you are afraid of pistachio-lime cheesecake.

From: Teddy

Have I proposed to you already? I think I did, but if I didn't - will you marry me?

From: Mina

_chocolate_biscuits.jpg_

From: Teddy

Not sure if that's a yes, but I'll assume so.

####

July

####

"That bike Dad insisted I get? Absolute marvel. Salvation. I ride it everywhere. Had to add a bell and other pieces, and install a basket both in front and on the back, but oh my God, it's soooo goood."

Mina glanced up at her from over the seedling tray as they stood there, picking out the flowers to move to the front gate plot.

"It turned out that the school has a bike club. Or rather, more than one. And it's very _correct_ to belong to one of them. So I signed up and it's a ladies biking club, which goes for trips all around Amsterdam and is aimed mostly at exchange students like me, so to show us all the interesting places and teach everyone that biking is the thing to do. Especially considering that the local council had recently banned even more cars from the centre of the city, which means biking is safer and more pleasant than ever before. Apparently. Anyway, we went for several little afternoon rides, to show us around the city and museums and so on, and on every other weekend until Halloween we were taking two-day trips outside."

"Hm— I could probably get our bicycles to work—" she sighed. "If I had time, that is. Everyone is suddenly speeding up work on their houses and—"

"But you are taking _some_ time off?"

Mina shrugged.

"Once Teddy is done with his training month, we'll go somewhere every weekend, but I can't really take time off until the harvest is done and then it will be school, so—"

Rose caught her sister's hand, before she reached for another tray.

"Minnie— You can't be doing this to yourself."

"If I don't, Dad will."

She bit her lip, watching her twin push another clump of dirt off the little spade.

"I wish I could—"

"No. No you don't. Rose, you don't— No. I mean it. You get out there, get education, get— Whatever it is you were planning to. I want _this_ , right here. I just have to get used to all the _pressure_ it creates."

"But you have to take time off. Some."

"I did. After Easter, we took that week. It was nice. I slept a lot, which I usually don't, since people start calling at dawn. Teddy needed to get out of the city, too, because— Well, he seemed tired."

"For someone who is not actually a churchgoer, you are definitely using the calendar weirdly."

"Wh— OK, I see. Yeah. Well, a lot of this stuff is moon-related, and moon phases is what the farmers swear by, so I kind of— anyway, talking to the neighbours be like 'by Ice Saints' or 'by Michaelmas' or 'after Whitsun', so I had to learn all these references, including _less_ church-related ones, like 'Imbolc', 'Beltane' or 'Harvest Moon'. Seriously, sometimes I feel like a heroine from an old-school hard fantasy novel."

"You should put this into an spreadsheet to make sure you have them all."

"Who says I haven't."

Rose laughed and picked up the seedling tray with chosen flowers. It was good to be back - to put her hands in the dirt and dig and plant and plan. Finally something that wasn't going to get carefully graded and discussed in front of the whole group.

"You've got this?"

She looked up, to where Mina was wiping off the table and lining up the plants to put back in the main greenhouse.

"Yeah. You go— sit inside. Or just relax. Whatever, just stop working, please, or I will feel guilty I'm on vacation now."

"On vacation and working on the flower arrangement to put in front of the gate. Girl, you are deluded."

Rose shrugged, trays wobbling slightly.

"We are daughters of a farmer. City kids can afford to spend their vacations lying flat on the balcony. We have stuff to do around the house."

She saw Mina's fleeting smile and a nod, before she turned to the wheeled basket they used to transport the plants and deposited trays on it. It would be a _good_ day. She had several dozens of marigolds, nasturtiums and cosmos to put in the empty spaces around the gate in front of the main mansion, in the place where the ground has been re-levelled after the heavy trucks had torn it up. She had been gradually replacing the plant life in the now-safe sections of the lawn over the previous few days, aiming at choosing species that would create a pleasing colour combination, even if they would not necessarily be put together in a traditional British garden.

Next year. Next year it would be time for a Proper Garden Project, making the front lawn and drive into the kind of display that any country house would be proud of.

As long as Mina managed to get the delivery trucks to use the technical road leading to the side of the house, instead of tearing up the gravel drive and messing up the re-laid lawn, of course.

She glanced towards the house, where her sister was standing on the main stairs, talking on the phone— Ah.

There were signs, if you knew what to look for. Just from watching another person, sometimes one can guess who they are talking to - by their body language, by the way they tilt their head, even by the way they hold the phone.

Right there and then, even from forty metres distance, not hearing what was being said, Rose knew that Mina was definitely not talking business. Because the person on the other end of that connection was Theodore Strickland. She knew the way Mina leaned on the great column on the top of the stairs — the way she combed back her hair — the little shuffle of her feet — from years of watching her talk to Teddy, ever since she had handed Mina her own phone to make her call Teddy and talk to him.

"She looks pretty tired."

Rose nearly dropped the handles — which would not have been very good for the plants...

"André! What— Why? How are you here? I thought you—"

"Last exam of this term was yesterday, passed, signed off, paperwork done. First year completed, full credits—"

She moved to hug him, but took a look at her hands, up to her elbows in dirt, and gave him an exasperated smile.

André had no such compunctions and drew her close, kissing her with great diligence. If carefully avoiding her hands.

"Do you have any particular place to be once you are done with the planting?" he asked, a bit breathlessly.

"Not really. And it's not really all that much left for today, since I have to finish this by the end of the week, but it's just this last piece of lawn—"

André was already tearing his light shirt off and taking over the wheel-basket.

"What— Why are you— André de Bourgh, will you put the shirt back on!? Not— What kind of a display is this?!"

"I work with animals all day at the clinic, so I'll be happy to help you deal with something that doesn't bite, scratch or pee on me, but at the same time, I'd rather not get any dirt or fertiliser on my shirt. Because I have plans to take you out tonight. What do you say, Miss Darcy?"

"Well— I— Seriously though, are you going to help me with planting this, parading topless? You are going to get a sunburn!"

"Been there, done that, we were trying to give a pony a check-up last week. Pony didn't wish to be checked up. Or, in fact, to stand still even for a second. Guess who got stuck chasing the stupid creature around the enclosure."

"You just want to distract me. No idea why, but that's the only explanation for this kind of... exhibition."

"Is it working?"

####

"So we went to Gouda, and then to Edam."

"Sounds like a very edible trip."

"Mostly, yeah. And I bought more little magnet houses for Mina's collection there, too. Anyway, most everyone bought cheese, obviously, and I must say, eating it in that little cellar— There is a certain something to it."

André's lips wrapped around her fingers and he removed the cube of basil Gouda she was offering to him.

"And I—" she trailed off. "Um—"

"Go on?" he suggested.

"Damn you! You were supposed to stop distracting—"

"Who said that?"

"A—" she opened her mouth and closed it with a snap. "Probably—"

"Yeah? I'm listening."

"You conniving little—"

"Is this a proper way to address your boyfriend?"

"If he is a conniving little shit, then yes."

"Rose Darcy! Do you kiss your sister with this mouth?"

"No, I mostly kiss _you_ with this mouth and I've never heard you complain."

"Hm, indeed. But we should check if anything chan—"

They were quite silent for a moment.

"Yeah," he coughed finally. "Yeah, that's still OK."

"Maybe we should check again?"

"We definitely could. No objection from my side."

####

"You're starting the courses in September?"

Mina leaned back against his bike and nodded, looking down at the foggy valley.

"A lot of driving then."

"Not really. Again, trains. And—" she looked at him from under the mess of hair the wind had blown into her face. "Um."

"Mina..."

"I might have— made some changes?"

"Starlight, what have you done?"

She looked up, pressing her lips to avoid smiling.

"I talked the plan over with Dad. And— We've read the websites and so on. I could take one regular year of full set of courses, but that would— that would be whole week, all year, like any other school. We checked schedules and there is no way around it, I'd have to be there all week, every week. So— We found something that's called 'Executive MBA'."

"Sounds fancy, and pricey."

"It's more expensive than the normal one, but—" she took a long breath. "It's two years. And it's done during the weekends, one each month, and just four full weeks during these two years. Because it's aimed at people who are already working and need to add a degree to it, or were promoted or something. So I'd be living at home and travelling for these weekends, and it won't even be all weekends, because it's twenty months, so two full school years, but only sixteen weekends, so eight weekends a year and—"

"What's the catch?"

She combed the messy hair back and re-tied them into the bun they had escaped from.

"I'm starting second week of September instead of last. Orientation week."

"That's quick."

"And the first weekend is just a month after."

He frowned.

"B-but—"

"Yeah. My birthday weekend."

"Oh, Starlight—"

"But. We could— we could meet?"

"That's more than half a country away—!"

She turned and tugged him closer.

"Not really. I mean— The meetings are on Fridays and Saturdays, so I'll be off on Saturday evening, and I could just get on the train and—"

He kissed her and shook his head.

"That's five hours, middle of the night—"

"Two hours."

He froze.

"What?"

Mina bit her lip.

"That course? It's not in Manchester."

She saw his eyes narrowing— calculation—

"Cambridge? You picked— you picked _Cambridge Judge Business School_? Like— What is it, second in the country?"

"Well, LBS is the first and I'm not touching London with a long stick," she sniffed. "And Dad did his MBA in Cambridge, too. So, it kind of fit. Second generation of Darcys—"

Teddy's lips smothered the rest.

"My brave, smart Starlight," he whispered finally. "Have I told you recently that I absolutely adore you?"

"It bears repeating."

####

_September_

####

"It was weird."

Teddy frowned at the phone camera as he stirred something in the pot.

"What was?"

"I'm the youngest."

"Ouch. That sucks, but it was kind of expected. What is the gender ratio?"

"Two to one for guys."

"Kind of expected, again. But were they OK? I mean, did anyone bother you about your age, or something?"

"Well—" she shrugged, undoing her jacket buttons. "They seemed weirded out, too. I mean, look."

He leaned closer to his screen, peering at the badge she put just in front of the camera.

"W. Darcy... So?"

"For some reason, they didn't put full names there, so I think someone read this wrong and— they thought I was Dad, OK? Like, William? Not Wilhelmina? No idea why he would be taking that course, since he already _has_ an MBA, but who knows—"

"Oh. My poor dear. And what happened?"

"Some older professor who remembered Dad came to the meet and greet thing and he was all puffy and looking for him, so someone finally called out 'Anyone named Darcy here?' and I answered and it was— I mean. They were so confused."

"So— It doesn't bode well? Or will it be OK?" he added some salt and stirred again.

"Welllll, Dad promised to come with me for the next weekend, just to meet his old teachers and maybe somehow, dunno, show his support. As if him paying for the entire thing wasn't— Anyway, he called me during one of the breaks, all anxious, and we had a little laugh about it. Other than that it looks fine, there was a lot of stuff to take in today, we have a dinner planned later, with the faculty and _thank goodness_ I've packed my reasonable shoes, or I'd be dead. This way I was just the shortest in the room. But alive."

"Starl— Can you please do that _away_ from the camera? Someone could walk in!"

"I've locked— Ah, you're in the kitchen. Sorry!"

She pulled a fresh shirt on and stretched, yawning.

"I'm not sure I have the energy to go, but then—" she sighed. "I _should_ socialise. Dad always tries to, it's good for networking."

"You can go, eat something nice and give it an hour and a half. If you don't find anyone you want to talk to, and it all just kind of sucks, you can go back to your room without feeling guilty that you didn't try... Where are you staying? Is it close by?"

"Accommodation for the orientation week is on the campus. It's old, stony and a bit drafty. And cold. But the dinner is in the same building, just downstairs, so definitely not far. OK. I'll go, and I'll call you later tonight, hm?"

"I'll queue up something for a little watchalong?"

"Just not too scary. And not too involved, my brain can't deal with new information today."

"Will do. Love you."

"Love you. Don't burn that!"

"Crap."

####

_October_

####

He straightened everything in the room - not to military standard, but as close as he could get it. All the books were on the shelves, there were photos of the two of them on the wall next to the book cabinet, the kitchen corner was clean and devoid of any unfortunate byproducts of his cooking experiments—

_Breathe, Theodore._

Yes, it was a tiny studio. Yes, Mina was used to taking a room in that funny hotel in the centre that was like twice the size of this entire flat.

But—

It was _his_ tiny studio. He was renting it, not sharing with anyone, no random roommates, nobody suddenly popping in, or banging around in the bathroom.

_Bathroom!_

He dashed to check it. Yes. It was clean, it was good. Good. Everything was— was good.

There was a wide, soft chair - more like a little sofa - that they could use to watch something. He even turned his computer screen so that he wouldn't have to adjust the angle too much. And—

_Breathe._

She'd be there any minute.

_Maybe I should have insisted I'd pick her up? But she said she'd get here— I should have insisted. Stupid, stupid Theodore...!_

There was a supper waiting - as much as one could make it on a two-burner electric kitchen - and he had a pot of tea, and—

A bell.

_Shit._

_What do I look like? My hair—_

He wrenched the too-heavy door open.

"M-Mister Darcy—"

"I drove with Mina down to Cambridge this weekend and decided to get her here. Safer than taking the train at this hour. Have fun, ducky," he leaned to kiss Mina's cheek.

"Um—" Teddy inhaled sharply. "Will you come in, sir? I've just put the tea on. You could— You know. Sit down or— You know, how much driving—"

He saw the crystalline blue eyes of his father-in-law-to-be flicker from Mina, to him, to the flat behind him.

He suddenly felt every bit of inadequacy of the place — too small, too crowded, and there was _only one bed_ , it was obvious—!

"Thank you, Teddy. I'd be grateful for a cup. And don't worry, I'm not driving back today. This one basically ordered me to stay the night in town," he poked Mina's shoulder. "Anyway, it would have been pretty stupid and Elizabeth would have had my head for that."

"Come on in then... Hello, Starlight."

Mina reached up and kissed him softly.

"Hi, Teddy. Are you sure—?"

"It's a good tea. And—" he shrugged. "It felt right?"

"It's a very nice place, Teddy. Ooh, you have a proper drafting table! And— Well, that's seems like a pretty professional setup. Do you have good light here?"

They turned to see Mister Darcy looking at Teddy's working desk with a smile.

"Mina, would Rose need one of these at some point?"

"If the details of the upper floors renovation need any more detail, _I_ will start needing some drawing surface, and you know I can't draw. But if I'm desperate enough—" Mina sighed and leaned on him slightly.

"How does this all work? How can— How can you draw at this angle? The guys I've worked with mostly had it flat or on an upright easel of some kind. Or on their screens."

"It is a bit of a personal preference, of course, and many people do drafting directly on their computers, too. Me, at least for first rough ones, I'm better with paper, and I like keeping it at an angle, pinned like this. Here, let me show you—"

Teddy dragged up another chair and offered it to Mina, before taking his stool and leaning over the drawing board.

"Let's say I need to make a plan of— of a garden. We'd start like this—"

He felt Mina's and Mister Darcy's eyes on him, but it was so easy to fall in the rhythm of pencil over the ruler and moving the drafting arm that he just gave in and described step by step what he was doing.

"...mostly we have to hand in files, but for me, every project starts _here,_ " he patted the frame. And looked up.

 _Um_.

Mister Darcy was smiling.

"Dad, stop it, you're scaring him," Mina sighed and turned to Teddy. "He's had a tough weekend. All the old teachers were asking him about Alex."

"Mostly they were asking if my _son_ is going to take Pemberley over from me at some point."

"Considering Alex is five and has not yet started Reception classes, it would be hard to say."

"They were all pretty confused when I told them Mina would be taking over. Some thought it was a joke."

"Luckily, it was a minority, and just two of them will be teaching me. The others are retired—"

"Luckily."

"—and after the classes, Dad showed me around the town. Well, what is still the same after thirty years. And since I'm in the same college as Dad, we had a dinner there, and we took a walk through the building, which is, what, built on the same place as Charles Darwin's son's house?"

"That's why it's called Darwin College, yes. Anyway, most of the faculty seems to be of reasonable age and so, mindset. Actually, it seemed like Mina impressed some of them with her knowledge of accounting and quick use of the tools they were discussing—"

"Mostly Excel and some reporting suites, very easy."

"— and at least two of the other participants actually tried to hire her then and there."

"Very funny, but yes."

"So," Mister Darcy drained his cup and made to stand. "I'll get myself to the hotel and go home tomorrow. You kids have a nice weekend. Mina, find yourself something nice for your birthday in that art shop and I expect you at work on Tuesday, young lady."

"Will do, boss-man."

She hugged her father briefly and then fell back, leaning against Teddy's side.

"Theodore."

He clasped the outstretched hand and tried not to shiver too much, but the grasp was warm and steady, not domineering or overpowering.

"Sir."

"I trust you, son."

Teddy only nodded jerkily.

####

_November_

####

From: Teddy

How's the weather at home?

From: Mina

Ugly. Rain nearly washed away the bridge to Matlock. Dad's concerned. I'm reading road drainage regulations. AGAIN.

From: Teddy

Here it's nasty. If the rain doesn't ease up, I won't be coming home this weekend. I'm sorry.

From: Mina

It will be better if you stay safe. We can Skype later today, when I'm at home.

From: Teddy

I had *plans* for this weekend!

From: Mina

I know. I had some, too... I'll be at Cambridge on the next one, but after that I'm home until mid-December. Helping G and L with the Christmas Market stall and so on.

From: Teddy

You set up on the second?

From: Mina

On the first, since we have a large booth and a freestanding stall with food, so we have to go through the sanitary control. But if you were in the area and decided to drop by, I could find a few minutes...

From: Teddy

Can't wait to see you, Starlight.

####

_December_

####

There was no surprise snow for Christmas, so Teddy was spending a whole week of it at his grandma's - while she spent it alternatively at Skype with him (when he could) and wrapped around Rose (when _she_ wasn't wrapped around André).

After a reasonably successful run of the Pemberley Estates stall at the Fair, in which she finally could take part full-time - except for the school weekend - they had new people interested in co-operating on the juice press initiative, a contract to receive honey from one of the local beekeepers, another for the Official Pemberley Blackberry Preserves to be delivered to one of the local B&Bs and Mom had signed up for a new charity ( _not_ lead by Dad) and agreed to make a huge floor-pillow crocheted tortoise for the paediatric hospital. Not for an auction, but for actual kids to actually use.

Therefore Mina was crocheting the needed pieces to help her speed it along, when the door opened and in sneaked Teddy, a bit red from the chill and holding up a small gift bag.

"Your mother let me in and told me you were holed up in your room. What is this?"

"Parts of a turtle. But they can definitely wait. Com'ere."

The hook was laid to the side and they tumbled onto her windowsill, onto the heap of cushions she kept there—

"Missed you," she murmured, pausing the kiss to take a breath.

"Yeah. Kind of got the idea," he answered softly. "Now, will you open your present?"

She sat up and pulled the slightly squashed bag open.

"What is— What is this?"

A long piece of soft cotton emerged, dyed turquoise, aqua, teal and deep purple.

"The girls from materials science institute went way overboard creating a batch of dyes for their project and the professor allowed them to use the rest up as they see fit. Even allowed them to use the lab after hours, just to see what they'd come up with. Half of the university is probably wearing something made by them. I asked for a length they dyed but didn't cut or make anything, so you could... you know. Decide for yourself what to do with it. But look below."

There was an infinity scarf there, yellow with shimmery blue-cyan stripe and dots.

"Oh my. Oh, Teddy, this is just lovely...! How..."

"M-m. I'll let them know they are being admired."

"Um. Now I think mine might be..."

"Starlight."

"Can you reach the box on my desk? Yeah, that. I mean—"

He picked at the paper until she showed him the strip of tape on the other side. And it was a metallic container of—

"Pencils."

"Yeah. Well, two brands. I couldn't make up my mind, and Rose suggested the first ones and the architect uncle Charles works with voted for the second ones and he swears the ones Rose prefers are like the worst ever, so... You'll have to experiment. And a pencil box, because you seem to be leaving all the writing and drawing stuff around all the time and there was this lady with carved wood boxes on the fair and mm—"

"I love it. And you. And—"

She picked the boxes out of his fingers and deposited them carefully on the table next to the window.

"Come here. Hold me."


	2. Year Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina, Rose, Teddy, Andre and their families in 2024.

####

_January_

####

Her design project was not coming along as well as she wished it to. In fact, she had nothing. Total round zero.

She thumped her forehead on the table, cursing.

It. Was. Not. Going. To. Work.

Skype signal interrupted her efforts to put a dent in the tabletop.

_Mom._

Rose's hand hovered for a moment, but finally she picked "Accept".

"Hi, kitten, what are you— What happened to your forehead?"

She looked at her screen, trying to—

"Oh my god. There had to be some ink splatter on the table! No no no no no, I have to get it off! Pumice? Mom, will pumice stone work on—"

"NO!"

"Ok, ok, so what?"

"Start with dish soap. If this is drawing ink, it's oily. Should get most of it off. Just dab some— CLOSE YOUR EYES!"

She got some of the liquid in her eyes anyway, but the dark blue splatter was gone. Mostly.

"Now take anything with alcohol — no, not white spirits. Just— do you have any perfume? Or vodka, I'm not going to judge you. Put some on a cotton ball and rub this blue off. Yeah. Worked?"

Rose squinted at the mirror.

"It's good. Anyway my eyes are watering up so they will be so red nobody will notice my forehead."

"Poor kitten. Now, come back to the laptop and tell me why you were doing inexplicable things to the table with your head. And, actually, wash the table, when you are at it. Who knows, you may need it again."

She did so, chatting with Mom all the time, explaining the poster now behind her and just trying to relax. It was very hard to relax on her own, and 'relaxing' with people from her year invariably involved drinking more beer than she was comfortable with (and made her pretty much useless directly afterwards).

"Now, give me a short version. What is it that they want?"

"A traditional installation with a modern twist."

"Uh. A generic description if I've ever seen one. Any examples?"

"Last year someone made a traditional English formal flower garden, but all in hydroponics."

"Wow. OK, I see. Complex situation."

"Tell me about it."

"So... If you were asked to make simply a traditional thing, what would you choose?"

Rose shrugged, nearly hit herself in the eye with the pencil she had been holding, looked around, finally stuck it into the messy bun of hair at the top of her head and covered her face with both hands.

"I don't know!" she whined. "I wanted an English garden, too, but repeating the same thing seems meh, and then there aren't really that many good things left that weren't tried..."

"Have you checked with your professors whether it's forbidden to repeat the basic theme?"

"It isn't, I know that already. But then I'm English, English formal garden, blah blah, seems like a stereotype...!"

"Rosie, what else is the obstacle here? Because these seem reasonably manageable."

She sighed. And thumped her head on the table again.

"I don't know what to do with the modern twist."

"No no no, I was asking, what about something just traditional. Formal garden, very well. Maybe you could pick one of the Pemberley gardens and use it as a basis for a garden case study?"

Rose moaned pitifully.

"Why do you have to be so _reasonable_?"

"I'm your mother, I need to be able to cut through the dramatics. This family is way too theatrical. Now, which garden around the house would you pick up to overhaul...?"

She considered it carefully.

"The one next to the wedding meadow."

"OK. What would you do with it?"

"Remove some of the random bushes - they can be replanted closer to the water, they'd be happier there. Use the existing hedge, but add a gate trellis and put some climbing flowers on it."

"Any ideas for planting inside? Now it's pretty much a lawn that Mina keeps seeded with 'butterfly flowers'."

"I want to keep part of this, but also add more of the hedge around it, to seclude it from outside, and add a gazebo, make it a sitting area."

"You'd have to level some ground there..."

"Just give the structure the supports to keep it steady and make the entrance from the flat side. Maybe make the paths more even—"

Ah-ha!

"I should— Make the whole thing clean, flatter and wheelchair-accessible. Remove gravel, put in well-flattened paving stones. Make the paths wider. And make the sides of the gazebo either fully open or low enough..."

"See? Here it is."

"And add the solar units on the roof, to make inside well-lit and give one or two power outlets. Like— Like that solar sitting bench— where was it—"

"See, plenty of ideas. Now, go. Write this down and let me know if you need the actual plan of that land plot, so I can get your lovely estate manager of a twin to get it for you."

Rose breathed in deeply.

"Yeah. Yes, definitely. Ask Mina or Dad for the detailed terrain map of that part, including elevation."

"Will do. Now, last question, when are you going to be presenting this? Immediately, or later, or...?"

"It's like half of my diploma project, so the design itself has to be submitted in March, but then I'd need to implement it, so... October."

"Very well. This way we will certainly have you for summer at home?"

"Mom, I'd come anyway...!"

"Just kidding! But it's good to know, we'll make sure nobody does anything on that plot. So you can have it as it is now."

She rubbed her eyes.

"M-hm. That would be good. Now, I'm going to make notes on what we just— _yeaaw_ — discussed and then I'm taking a nap."

"Sweet dreams, kitten."

####

_February_

####

"I wish I could come and dance with you this year."

"Don't worry. There will be other occasions, and I will be more or less working anyway, so..."

Teddy traced the lines in her palm with his fingertip.

"Still. I saw that photo of the dress you'll be wearing. It looks very nice, and... I wish I could dance with you like this."

"We could dance right now."

"You are wearing flannel pyjamas."

"Are you saying that you can't dance with a woman in a pair of flannel pyjamas?"

Teddy hummed and reached for his laptop, soon putting on some sweet, crooning music.

"May I have this dance, milady?"

"Miss Darcy," she corrected, standing up. "It's better than any other title in the land."

... _Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin..._

She rested her head in the softness of his sleeping t-shirt and felt a small kiss dropped to the top of her head as they swayed softly in place to the rhythm.

"...dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on..." he whispered, bringing her left hand to his lips, and pressing them to her ring finger.

It was better than any ball, ever.

####

"What did your boyfriend give you for Valentines?"

Mina raise bleary eyes from over the spreadsheet of tasks she was tracking for the Ball and tried to understand what the hell...

"He's not my boyfriend," she mumbled finally and went back to counting the needed...

"You were certainly all over him," Janet snorted. "If I had a snack like this in my hands, I'd definitely make sure nobody else took a bite out of that."

"He's not a snack, he's a full beefcake...!"

The cackling around her made her lose the spot in the Excel she had just updated.

_How is it that people do it? Dad at least isn't getting asked imbecilic questions like these...! I'd use his office, but then I won't know what is happening in the open space, and leaving these harpies without any oversight seems like a recipe for trouble. Why has nobody ever reined them in before?_

"So, what's the news on the boytoy?"

"Would you stop calling him this?!"

A few women around her suddenly fell silent and turned to her with raised eyebrows, exchanging looks.

"It's, frankly speaking, objectifying and very much annoying. I'm not sure - is this some kind of a yearly event? Last year I've had to ask you to shut up in March, now it's February... What's even your problem?"

"Oh, get off your high horse."

"Someone doesn't have a sense of humour..."

"She does, but you all are just not that funny."

"Rose!"

Her sister was looking at all the employees around them, all quite a few years their seniors, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"I'd be disappointed if I had to tell father that his employees cannot stop themselves from being a bunch of thirsty primitives. Mina, you done?"

"Not yet. Give me like half an hour? I need to finish the Gala staff planning."

"Sure. Unless you could use help?"

She looked at the screen. Up at Rose.

"Come on. I've messed something up and I could use a second pair of eyes."

Rose pulled up the chair and squeezed herself closer.

"You OK?" she whispered, looking at the rest of the office with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah," Mina breathed. "Better now. Thank you."

"Let's deal with this spreadsheet you have and then we can talk to Mom and aunt Kitty if they have any ideas..."

####

"You clean up nicely, Mr de Bourgh."

"I hoped I would not disappoint, Miss Darcy."

Rose smoothed down the lapel of his tux.

"You definitely aren't disappointing, in any department. Now. Will we be standing here, catching our death from cold, or will we go in, to be the gossiped-about couple this year?"

He offered her his arm and they pushed inside.

"What do you mean, gossiped-about?" he asked belatedly.

Rose smiled and unpinned her hair in one fluid movement.

"My sister is up there, all prim and proper and very much alone, because soldier boy was not able to come. People are talking about her. Speculating. I don't like it."

"So you want to take some heat off Mina?"

"Well, it would be nice. She had worked so hard on this, and I only came home yesterday, so everything was ready. The least I can do is to make these old fat cats stop muttering suspicions every time they see her. They are making her feel inadequate."

"Ah, well. I'm happy to be of a service."

"Not that it would be any hardship," she corrected quickly, seeing his slight frown. "Come on, André. Let's dance."

His long, wiry arms went around her, holding her just the way she liked - close and safe.

"Yes, Miss Darcy. I am your faithful servant."

"Then better be about it, de Bourgh."

He was. André had taken enough lessons of ballroom dancing to satisfy any needs of a dance-hungry woman. Waltz, including a spirited Viennese, tango, foxtrot and quite a lot of lighter ones, he had it all in his repertoire.

And he could Lead. With capital L.

Rose had learnt how to manage in several of the most popular ballroom dances since the school dances times, so she took advantage of that ability of his with gusto. And they were drawing eyes and curiosity.

"I should dance at least one with Mina, I suppose," André suggested.

"That would be just splendid, my dear fellow."

####

_March_

####

"I'll be back from the trip by the time you're back home for spring break," she added a mark to the calendar. "And then we can take maybe two days off together?"

"What will your manager say?"

She rolled her eyes at the laptop camera.

"My manager scolds me on a regular basis for not taking enough time off."

"Which you can't do during the summer—"

"Yeah. So, I was thinking, I'm back from that school thing on Palm Sunday, so we could use Monday and Tuesday to take a little trip somewhere, be back to help our respective families with all the preparation, then take a few more days in the week _after_ Easter."

"Which makes it...?"

"Saturday is sixth of April."

"And my spring break is until the seventeenth. Perfect. OK, pencil it in and—" he paused. "Wait a moment. Someone's calling from the base."

She waited. And waited.

"Yeah. So—" he sat down, looking at the phone in his hand with a pinched face. "I'll only be back home for Easter, I'm afraid."

"What? Why?!"

"They are calling for additional training weeks, so half of my break will be spent at the base. I'm sorry, Starlight. We can take the whole week after Easter, but if I'm looking at this correctly, I'll be home late evening on Friday."

She groaned and thumped the desk with her head.

"OK. OK, we both knew what you were getting into— Just, it annoys me, OK? Them making all these last minute changes of plans"

"You have a right to be unhappy with this. But— To make it maybe a little better, I have now orders to travel home and be out and about in my uniform."

"So I can spend all Saturday out and about, hanging off the arm of a handsome soldier?"

"Benefits of the army needing positive PR."

####

_June_

####

" _How does it feel, being twenty-one with a diploma?_ "

"Lonely. The diploma isn't much of a conversationalist. And doesn't hug well."

_"You could hug that bridge you designed."_

"Not until next year, I can't. But I have confirmation they will put it in the plans, sooo... But anyway, I'd rather hug you, Starlight."

" _I know, love. But with another breakout—"_

"Yeah. At least they aren't running students out of town this year. They had learnt after the last time."

_"When will you all have the test results?"_

"The base is getting them processed as quickly as possible. Everyone who tests OK twice will be moved to the base housing, since they deemed it a good idea to isolate us for this whole term of trainings."

_"Harsh. But sounds reasonable. And you will have time to gather your things. Will you be able to take your personal stuff or is it very Army-strict?"_

"I'm mostly packed anyway. Bigger things will go to storage on base, but normal things like books and computers we can just have in our rooms. And everyone is getting singles."

_"At least that."_

"But that could mean we'd be there all summer— to avoid risk of contamination, and to speed up the trainings, too."

_"But it's not like you'll be on information blackout or something. You'll be able to call?"_

"It's not a special forces academy! There is a discipline regarding calls, lights out and so on, but I'm pretty sure by now access to mobile and Skype is written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so they won't cut us off."

_"Good. I'd be most displeased if they did."_

"So— How is it in Pemberley? Are you stuck at home, or out and working?"

_"Working, we can't afford to break now. Everyone is in masks, face shields, gloves and what not and we use sanitiser by litres, but we're working. I'm mostly on the building site now and I'm staying at one of the cottages on the estate, see, if I unblur the background... yeah. And Dad's at home and working remotely, since he's more in the at-risk group than any of us."_

"And how's Rose?"

_"She's coming home tomorrow and will be quarantined at one of the cottages, too. It's already all set up for her."_

"At least she managed to finish that project—"

_"Yes. She's done with the theoretical part, presented her little solar gazebo plan and Dad and I gave official approval for installation of it on the grounds, so they checked it off... You know, pandemic conditions, a lot of stuff stops being actually physically done, right? So she's now officially on her way to her Master's. And she will be able to clock in more hours of project work now that she'll be home. First she will be doing prep for the garden redo, and then some design work. County council needs someone to help in drafting the new park—"_

"A new what?"

_"Lambton is getting a new park. You know, out north, next to the fire station— There was that empty piece of land? Well, an investor proposed making a park there, since it's mostly a spot that would probably get flooded when spring comes, so some provisions have to be made, and that includes proper design of the lanes layout and choice of trees to be planted."_

"Ambitious."

_"Rose has already started researching proper native plants that are water resistant like that."_

"And may I ask who the investor is—?"

_"This plot has been part of the estate for at least two hundred years...! I just pointed out that we could maybe make it into a project that would employ some of the free workforce in the area— And it kind of escalated from there."_

They laughed, hopelessly.

Stuck over half a country apart, each attending their own duties.

####

_July_

####

_Is Lambton turning into a privately-funded investment project of one misty-eyed idealist stuck in the nineteenth century model of living or is it growing to be a perfect little town, a little pearl of a mix of domestic and traditional with modern and globalist?_

_> Click here for our opinion piece on large landowners._

_> A slideshow of Lambton streets and parks and what they were ten years ago - is it better?_

_> What happens to historical mansions when families can no longer afford maintaining them?_

_> "This isn't what we are doing," claims the representative of Darcy Estate_

And that last piece was captioned with a photo.

Her large, golden eyes, looking straight into the camera lens, narrowed in annoyance and surrounded by worried lines.

He thumbed his phone, never taking his eyes off the screen.

"That's one scary photo," he said without preamble.

"Well, that's one good thing about that article. Maybe they will stop calling me. I hate talking to journalists. Well, ones that aren't Delly," she amended quickly. "Delly is OK."

"What happened there?"

She sighed and he heard soft rustling.

"Just like in 2020, people started noticing uptick in public works investment we made. The park, some road repair, this kind of stuff. And they of course pulled out again the good old 'Darcy is modelling the town to his tastes' and are having a field day analysing Dad's propensity for ice-cream, artisan leather belts and traditional shoemakers."

"And what's the verdict?"

"They still don't know why he's doing it, but they are pretty sure he has some nefarious reason. And they dug up that old thing with the historical society, so—"

Teddy groaned.

"Why were they bothering _you_ then?"

Silence.

"Mina?"

"Dad isn't feeling very well."

"What— Starlight, what happened? _Mina?_ "

"Teddy, he—" he heard her little sob and his heart skipped a beat, "Dad's in a hospital. Mom and Alex are in isolation and— I've been tested and I'm OK, but— Teddy, Dad's in Matlock— He had such bad fever — I drove him to Lambton, and— At least now they have effective tests, so they told me I'm fine, but— Dad's not— He's been—"

She was crying now.

He had never felt that useless before.

####

Rose bit into her pencil, trying to stop herself from crying.

She was sitting in the cottage outfitted for her by Mina and was supposed to be working on the implementation of her 'modern twist' garden. But there was nothing in her head. Nothing. Not even cotton wool. She had. Nothing.

Well, she had the plans she had drafted back in Amsterdam, but they seemed way too small now, too conservative. Too tentative.

The window in the tiny room was directly facing the gardens.

And there were people out there, working on something... A trellis? What was that?

She stood up, pulled the gloves on and fetched her faceshield.

There were people messing with Pemberley gardens out there and she wasn't going to stand idly by as they damaged the lawn or destroyed something vital.

Screw modern twist in one garden plot. There was work to be done, there and then, immediately.

She picked up her phone and called her sister.

Ten minutes later she was on the line with the head gardener and heading over to the people supposedly setting up grapevine trellis.

She would have rubbed her hands together, but the gloves were way too bulky for that. She stretched her neck instead, making sure she hadn't gotten a crick there after all that sitting over the drawing board.

Rose only went back to the draft of her project a week later, once everything that didn't touch the official formal gardens was carefully plotted out with one Mister Rook, who had taken over as head gardener when she was away. The man had some good ideas and just needed a bit of an additional support, especially theoretical, to push him in the right direction.

And she carefully started the draft of the garden anew, including the automated watering systems that had been introduced in the wake of a variety of lockdowns and dearth of qualified ground workers. A terribly ineffective system that she was now leading the remodelling of, with Mina's blessing and the support of the whole garden staff.

Yeah, she'd have the additional pipes in the ground in two days and the power installation would be waiting to be connected to the central gardens section, to ensure the supply of power for cloudy days for her little gazebo. And she was already quite sure that the team that had been setting up the trellis would be kept as far as possible from her new project.

And it would keep her busy, and take off some load from Mina and it would hopefully tire her out enough for her to just fall asleep in the evening. She wouldn't have time to cry or be anxious then.

And Dad would be OK and he would be happy with her taking part in the estate management, even though it was just a tiny little piece of all the mess that Mina was trying to sort out.

####

André's face popped up on her phone that she had set to silent hours before.

Oups.

Fifteen unanswered.

She had been in the zone.

Pick up or not pick up?

But it was _Andr_ _é_.

She pressed the green button and loudspeaker icon quickly.

"Hi, love."

"Thank goodness," he breathed. "I thought... well, anyway. You OK? At home?"

"All good. Yes, at the house, since I've been deemed not to be a carrier. Mom and Alex are overjoyed they have someone to talk to."

"And they are OK, too?"

"Completely clean. So we're safe to be together, but not with Mina, who is out too much. And we still can't visit Dad..."

André sighed.

"Mood. At least I can see aunt Maura every day, even though she is in isolation due to age."

"Send her my love."

"I will. Now, tell me about the changes you've made since I've seen these plans of yours."

"But that doesn't make sense - you won't see the pictures and anyway, these kinds of remodelling requires a lot of explanation and..."

"I just need to hear your voice, Rosie. Please. Tell me everything. Start with what was wrong."

She heard the little drop in his voice, that tiny something that always made her hug him. She couldn't do that now, but he asked for some comforting, right?

So she would be providing that comfort. Why not.

"So first, they connected the pipes with badly matching fittings..."

####

From: Mina

Dad's OK. V. weak. Taking him home in three days.

From: Teddy

Stay safe.

From: Mina

Aiming to. Rose, Mom and Alex are OK, so they are all back at home now.

From: Teddy

Tessa says school starts normally. Alex the same?

From: Mina

They were warning everyone that there might be a delay for first grade.

From: Teddy

Better a delay than another 2020.

####

_September_

####

William knew he was supposed to be taking it easy.

He was trying.

But he couldn't just hand the whole estate management over to Mina. Not yet. Not when she was still studying. She needed the time. She needed all the time he could give her, to learn, to find her own way, to make sure she actually knew what she was getting into.

She needed to be better prepared than he had been.

Which meant he was sitting in the study at nearly one in the morning, sorting through the papers and trying to make sense of what he had written in the notebook just hours before being admitted to the hospital.

"Will."

He looked up, pulled out of his reverie.

Elizabeth, wrapped in a fiery orange and cream silk robe, leaned on the door, watching him with narrowed eyes.

"Come to bed."

"I need to finish..."

"Come to bed and I'll help you with this tomorrow."

"But... I wanted to prepare these for Mina..."

She pressed her fingers to his lips.

"Shut up, William Darcy. You know as well as I do that the doctor ordered you to take it easy. Your heart..."

Yeah. Because his heart had taken a beating. A severe one, in fact.

"I need to get these in order for Mina, so she knows what to do..."

"Tomorrow. Now you need to sleep."

He pouted.

"I thought you've said 'come to bed', I didn't hear anything about sleeping..."

"Shave this five o'clock and I'll consider your unvoiced suggestion."

"It's more of a 'one o'clock', I think."

"Then there's even more reason to shave it. Now, you come with me, you caveman. Leave this laptop alone! William Darcy!"

He kissed her protest quiet.

But he did leave the laptop and the papers in the study.

He'd have to show Elizabeth his newest purchase at some point, however. Maybe not there and then, but she needed to know he made moves to secure her safety.

####

William was being impossible. Up at all hours of the night, trying to 'prepare the estate for Mina'. Sure. While at the same time all Elizabeth wanted was to make sure Mina would not be inheriting that estate any time soon. Prepared or not, twenty-one was not the right age to lose a parent. And since Mina was working herself half to death trying to take as much as she could off William's shoulders and Rose was pushing her degree forward as much as she could reasonably, they simply could not be expected to take on any more work.

Rose's help with the gardens watering system took a lot of immediate pressure off Mina and William, but she couldn't help more directly as long as she was studying abroad.

They were all picking up the pace.

They had almost lost William.

_They had almost lost William._

Stupid, stupid, stupid virus.

They should have kept better isolation. Mina should have been the only one leaving the house, and they should have...

They should have done it differently. Somehow. There had to be something they could do if another epidemic came - and there would be more. There would always be another flu or some bacterial crap.

Elizabeth took a shuddering breath.

It was time for the first online lecture of the term. Hopefully the students she was teaching this year would have a better future in front of them.

She opened the conferencing app and waited for her group to come online.

####

_October_

####

"How are you?"

"Turning twenty one," she sighed, laying back on the bed. "I wish you were here."

André pulled his screen up a bit.

"Yeah. Well, better safe than sorry. You OK there? No quarantine rules?"

"No, but we need to wear all kinds of safety gear. Face masks and what not. Shields. And we have most of the lessons online."

"If you didn't have the practical ones..."

"I'd be still at home."

They both sighed.

"And you?"

André raised his scratched hand.

"A cat. Thankfully I got all my shots, so I'll be OK, but it itches like crazy."

"Oooh, my poor baby. And why did the wicked feline attack you?"

"I must admit I was ordered to put it under general anesthesia as preparation for removal of certain parts a tomcat might consider vital..."

Rose grimaced, but giggled.

"Then I think the cat was pefectly justified."

"Cruel, cruel Rose."

"I can promise, if you were here, I'd kiss it better."

He pouted minutely, but there was nothing to be done.

"I'll try to get a ticket the moment the limits are lifted. Ferry takes way too long."

"Just... be safe, OK?"

"You too. Take care of yourself. For me?"

"Love you."

####

_November_

####

Mina was sick.

Same as nearly every fall.

Only this time she was sick a week before Mom's birthday.

Also, on the weekend of the November meetup in Cambridge.

She wanted to die, she wanted someone to hug her, she wanted to sleep. She needed a shower.

She curled up on her bed, shaky and feverish, waiting for the most recent dose of Ibuprofen to kick in.

Mom was under strict orders to keep herself and Alex as far away from her as possible, so she was as good as on her own.

At least it wasn't a late case of COVID-24, but better safe than sorry...

She popped the laptop open and joined the Zoom lecture, muting her microphone and leaving a message on the chat that she wasn't feeling very well, so she'd be just on silent all day.

She fell asleep halfway through the second session.

####

_December_

####

Mina leaned on the cool stone of the ancient building and unshouldered her backpack to pull out her current project. It was another of the many squares she already had, stacked at home - the perfect way to create a blanket without hauling the whole thing around. She just had three more to make and then sewing, and finishing with a thick edge—

"That's lovely."

She turned to face one of the women from her group— Marianne something?

"Thank you."

"I used to crochet at work, but they told me it's not good for the image of the team leader. Well. At least I can still do it on my home office days."

"Mom knits when she watches her students presenting things. She says that makes it harder for her to interrupt them unnecessarily."

"That's smart, definitely. I'm on so many conference calls that are just— just for show, that I need to do something useful, or I'll start checking my e-mails, stop paying attention—"

Mina nodded slowly and looked around for a place to sit, but most chairs were taken and there were no two left—

"I need to finish this," she explained. "It's for a Christmas gift and I'm still a few squares short—"

"There is a sitting lounge around the corner, I mean— If you don't mind company."

She didn't. Marianne turned out to be a decent enough conversation partner, talking about silly office gossip and random things about their course that she had noticed, all the while Mina crocheted the next few rounds to her satisfaction.

Their course colleagues had dispersed into smaller groups, some looking over the notes they took, some probably catching up with work, considering their attention to their laptops. And—

Mina's phone buzzed and she pulled it out with an apology towards Marianne.

_TEDDY_

"Hi, what's—"

"Starlight, I— OK, you will be angry with me, but— Um."

"Teddy?"

"I'm in Cambridge."

"What? Where—?"

"Well, at the station for the time being. And I was wondering, when do you finish today?"

"At five, but— but how— why? I thought you were supposed to have some additional meetings on Monday— What happened?"

"I rescheduled. Asked my professor to meet me today about my thesis and explained— I needed to see my girl and—"

"Oh, so that's what I am now, an excuse to get out of your tutor meetings."

"No! I mean, well. Maybe, a bit. He was understanding and we talked my project through today and so, you know. I could get on the train and go home, or—"

"Oh, Teddy. OK. Um. I'm out in— three hours. Can you find something— Oh, no. Not like this. I'll call the hotel and add you to my room. Wait a moment."

Marianne was watching her with a smile as she quickly amended the reservation and then called Teddy again with the details.

"...and I'm in the Simon Sainsbury Centre, so, you know, once I'm done, we could grab a bite—?"

"I'll be waiting for you."

And so he was.

The uniform, a military style coat (very much like Uncle Richard's... was he consciously copying his role models?), a black scarf and leather gloves.

Teddy.

She ignored the crowd of onlookers, taking the last few steps down two at a time and hugging him with all her might.

"Hi, Teddy," she breathed, smiling (probably like a loon, but who cared?)

He ducked down to kiss her.

"That your year?" he whispered.

"Yeah."

"Old farts."

"Very much."

"Shall we?" he picked up her coat from she had carried it over her arm and held it out for her.

"Why thank you, Mr Strickland."

"Your servant, Miss Darcy."

She held his gloves as he rebuttoned his coat and he picked up her backpack when she wrapped herself up.

"Where to now?" he asked softly.

"Well, Dad would be making annoyed sounds, but there is that Italian place around the corner..."

He offered her his arm, and she quickly threaded hers through it.

####

Rose was sleeping on her bed.

Mina blinked.

Knuckled her eyes.

Rose was _still_ sleeping on her bed.

And she looked _exhausted_.

Quietly, not dropping anything to avoid making noise, she changed into her yoga pants and long sleeved tee, picked up the additional blanket from the chest at the foot of her bed and covered them both.

"Hi," her sister sighed, drawing closer to her.

"Mhm. Hi. You OK?"

Rose inhaled.

Exhaled.

Shook her head.

"No."

"Com'ere."

Rose's head fitted on Mina's shoulder perfectly - same as the other way round.

"What's wrong?"

"Jus'tired. Didn't g't enough sleep yesterday because of the plane. And today— We had a run-in with André's ex, in Derby. He was— It was nasty."

She rubbed up and down Rose's arm in silence.

"The guy started shouting at André about jus'— jus' leading 'im on. And about not bein' prop'ly gay."

"Shit."

"Stupid people are stupid."

"But— he was just shouting? He didn't— Rose, he didn't hurt you or André?"

"He tried to grab André, but we just walked on, and he followed us, and— Well, we got into the car, so he couldn't— But he was, like, twice as muscled as André— And André was shaking and— Well, we ended up calling Dad to pick us up, but then André needed to go home because Aunt Maura is sick and needs someone to stay with her, and André's parents are— somewhere. With Adrienne. Some trip. Whatever. So he had to stay, but I didn't have my things, so he said we should just rest and— I think he didn't want me to see he was upset? We have to pick his car up tomorrow anyway, so I'd need to borrow yours? I suppose? But—"

"Sure. I'll drive you there, so you don't have to drive back here separately."

"Oh. OK. Ta."

Mina thumbed the light regulator on her phone to bring the desk lamp down to ten percent and turn it away from the room, diffusing the light

Pulled the blanket higher.

Hugged Rose closer, still rubbing her arm rhythmically.

"Tell me what you did last week."

"Well— we were working with the hydration project—" Rose yawned. "And we modelled— modelled that lovely waterfall— an', an' it was— all mossy and grassy, but not damp— an' we've built a fl'wer 'nclosure for— for vines— and stuff—"

She sighed, as Rose slowly trailed off, breaths slowing down and evening.

From: Mina

We'll talk tomorrow. Rose's sleeping in my room. Essentially *on me*. She's had a bad day. Andre too. Call him maybe.

From: Teddy

  1. I'll ping you tomorrow when I'm free. What happened?



From: Mina

One of Andre's exs scared them on the street. Both are kinda shaken, but A had to be at home with his aunt M and R came home and just crashed.

From: Teddy

She could have stayed there, but their choice. I'll call him. ly.

From: Mina

ILYT.

####

"Mina."

She smiled and rocked from her toes to her heels and back, looking at him expectantly as he handled a positively _humongous_ package that dwarfed his own gift for her by— several orders of magnitude probably.

"Come on. Open it— Oh now you are just being annoying!"

He carefully picked the little pieces of tape off the paper, feeling the quivering curiosity of Alex and Rose sitting on the carpet by the coffee table — and the eyes of their elders on them.

Because they were doing this. A Christmas lunch at the Little House of Pemberley, as Mina had christened it, with his parents (and Theresa, who was now sitting in the corner, reading), the Darcy-Yang couple and Brigadier Fitzwilliam and his husband and daughter.

However much his mother might be unhappy with the "whole engagement mess" and the way he and Mina went about it, she could not just decline the invitation, so now she was sitting, watching as he and Mina exchanged gifts. Because they had been silly and promised Alex he could see what they were—

_Wow._

He froze.

"All cotton, no wool, don't worry. Heavy like— Like something heavy."

"But— It's—"

"In the colours of your school unit."

"Starlight— I—"

"You complained about not being able to find a good throw, so," Mina shrugged, as if it was nothing. "I had _a lot_ of time to crochet in trains."

"And in the office," Mister Darcy added in a mock whisper. "And on the calls, and when she was rebooting her laptop, and when she was heating her food, and when I was driving, and when we were waiting at the county office, and when she went to deal with the mess at the timber company _again_ , and—"

"And at the cinema," Mina's mom added.

"Mom!"

Little Alex extended a curious hand, but stopped and looked at Teddy, eyes wide.

"You can touch," he prompted. "It's soft."

The kid seemed delighted, if still silent, so Teddy watched little pudgy fingers trailing over the strips of colour.

"Pull it out flat," Rose suggested. "Let's see how big it is."

It was _huge_. Big enough to cover his bed and leave a solid twenty centimetres hanging on each side, and it was not just the crochet layer, but it had a backing of solid khaki cotton - thick flannel, soft and warm to touch.

"Starlight— I—"

"Shush," she sat next to him and kissed his cheek. "You needed it, and I could make it. So there."

"I'm kind of afraid now you'll be disappointed," he sighed.

"Teddy..."

"Well, it's not the promised teddy bear, since I still hadn't found one the right size—"

Mina rolled her eyes at him and picked the paper apart with her deft fingers. And stalled once she saw the edge.

"That's—"

"I— If you don't like it—"

"How. How did you— Where did you find it? They'd gone out of production— five years ago? How?"

"I might have made some friends at the Forbidden Planet in the town centre and they found it for me."

Mina's narrowed eyes surveyed him suspiciously.

"What did you— Teddy?"

"They needed a body double."

"Excuse _me_?"

"For Captain America."

His fiancée looked at him.

At the Captain Marvel laptop bag (magnetic clasp, faux-leather, reinforced strap, seventeen internal pockets).

Again at him.

At her sister.

Who was rolling her eyes and mouthing "kiss already" at both of them.

"You dressed as Captain America."

"Southampton Children's Hospital event. There were other superheroes, but they needed someone with— appropriate built."

"And— they found the bag?"

"Seems they had two on display, and this one didn't have the original packaging, so they stashed it in the backroom somewhere— well, now, here it is."

Mina chewed on her lip.

"I love you, seriously."

Yeah. He knew.

####

While Rose and André were enjoying the hospitality of 'Aunt Maura' and André's parents, Teddy and Mina were ordered to take a week off and away from their families after Christmas. Mister Darcy had practically shoved Mina and him out of the door - after the summer they had, after the busy autumn, he had said Mina was owed more than a month of time off. She could only take a week, because Teddy only had a week, but they definitely should have some peace, if they could. And, apparently, William Darcy had just the place for them to do that.

The small house on the shore that Mister Darcy had bought without telling anyone (until just that week) was quiet, isolated, warm and filled with books, food and every kind of comfort.

They'd spent the week alternating walking by the sea and picking seaglass deposited there by the autumn storms with curling up by the fireplace.

"I couldn't imagine moving here permanently, but it's a lovely place."

"Dad wanted to make sure we'd have a place to go if another pandemic hit. A place for Mom and Alex at least, since she can work remotely, and he— well, he needs space. And when everything closed down last summer—"

It wasn't the first time he felt— different. Alien.

Unfitting.

From a completely different world.

Normal, everyday people didn't buy out half a town to make it work better.

Normal, everyday people didn't buy a chalet on the coast in case another epidemic isolation was enforced.

Normal, everyday people didn't do all the stuff he had seen William Darcy do, quietly and without drawing attention to himself.

But then he looked at Mina, with her tired eyes, her careful way of putting away everything that could still be used, her caution when shopping, her miles upon miles of excel spreadsheets, calculating everything on the estate to the penny—

She could be Miss Darcy — taking an astonishingly exclusive and expensive MBA course, preparing to one day take over a company and an estate spanning half a county, using her family money to the benefit of the community that Darcys saw as somehow, intrinsically, still _theirs._

But nevertheless, deep inside, she _was_ Mina Bennet, the same worried kid from London who explained how she knew all the places offering the best deals in Camden, who had learnt how to cook by the time she was thirteen, who had been so furiously independent and battle-weary by the time they met—

She might have been _born_ into the world of wealth, but she hadn't been _raised_ in it. She was balancing in that weird way where she took everything that her father did as obvious and proper - and yet she still meditated over recycling every torn t-shirt for yarn and carefully considered her personal budget every time she needed a new pair of shoes.

He slid to the floor, pulling her closer, to lie against his chest, watching the flames.

"You'd go mad in a month, tops," he murmured into her collarbone. "No people to organise, no vendor to convince you need the order corrected, no papers to be filed, no reports to be constructed."

"No customers to annoy me with their questions, no—"

"I thought your only 'customer' was actually Pemberley."

She leaned on him, forcing him to brace against the bed.

"Actually, Pemberley is me being the client, in a way. There is a complicated contract drawn up for this, but in essence, when I pass the gate, I'm the estate manager and owner delegate, so the crews are delivering work to me. If I deal with anyone else's estate, I — or Dad, or one of the senior site managers — go there as a conduit between the teams and the actual owner. If— say, if someone delivered wrong timber, like it happened at home, I'd have the power to shout at the vendor to deliver a new pallet, but the financial decision to return or use the wrong one for something else would be on the owner. I could only advise, based on what the carpenter would have told me. Same in case of any doubts regarding the contract. We can only make decisions up to a certain level."

"So in case of contracts, when you have your DBT assistant hat on, you deal with some stuff, but pass the decision to the owner on others; but when at Pemberley, the buck stops here?"

"Occasionally, when it's something very specific, I need Dad's input, but that's more for me than for formalities. I have the authority to make all the decisions, including renegotiating the scope, the tasks, the contracts with vendors— Well, I can't go outside the National Trust rules, but that's closer to a law than a contract at this point."

His arms tightened around her, hands softly rubbing her belly through the age-softened shirt.

"Is this some ultimate rom-com thing?" he asked

"Hm?"

"Girlfriends wearing their boyfriends' clothing. I'm pretty sure this is my shirt."

"It is," she admitted shamelessly. "I like the way wearing it feels like being hugged by you."

"Well, I can hug you anyway now."

"Then it's a double hug."

"I'm not getting it back?"

"No way."


	3. Year Three

####

_January_

####

"It's cold like hell outside," Mina complained as she closed the door tightly.

"Isn't hell hot?"

"Hell is in general unpleasant. Can be cold, can be hot. What do you have there, Alex?"

Her tiny brother sighed and handed her a picture.

"And what is this?"

"A design for the snow house I wanna build with Rose," he mumbled.

"But Rose isn't... Oh, I see. Rose isn't here to build it with you and that's why you are unhappy?"

"Yeah."

"Come here, baby."

She picked him up easily, putting him on her hip, and carrying him to the living room.

"Let's do something a bit consoling, hm?"

Alex peeked at the screen of her laptop as she opened it with one hand.

"What?"

"Skype. Come on, we've skyped with Rose before."

"Yeaa--ah. I don' like Skype. Gotta talk a lot."

"Not necessarily. I can talk and we'll show Rose your design and she can tell us how to improve it, right?"

"...ight."

"So. Calling Rose!"

The computer obediently opened Skype and picked Rose's handle from the list.

And rang.

And rang.

And rang.

"Weird. She is supposed to be home now."

"Maybe she's stuck in the loo?" Alex suggested with a giggle.

"Maybe, maybe. It's pretty nasty to answer calls when you are 'in session', so I'd rather she didn't. Anyway, let's wait for her and meanwhile we could eat something."

They heated up the casserole and Alex obediently ate a few bites before turning to the laptop again, face worried.

"Eat, she will call back when she can."

Which was the best way to make Rose call, apparently, because the annoying sound of Skype ringing filled the kitchen immediately.

"Rose!"

"Hi, Alex. Mina. What's going on?"

She peered at the screen.

"Why were you taking a shower in the middle of the afternoon?"

Rose wrapped her hair with a towel and sat at her desk finally.

"I was in sauna with the girls downstairs. They installed a communal sauna in our building and we were taking advantage of it."

"What is sauna?" Alex piped up.

"It is a very hot room where people go to warm up when it's nasty outside and today it's _ugly_ here. Sleet and mud. So we fired up the sauna and warmed up that way. Very effective, even if you need to take a cold shower afterwards."

"I hate cold showers."

"So do I, dear. But then, combined with the sauna, it's pretty neat. Anyway, what were you two calling me about?"

Mina pulled out Alex's drawing and they spent the rest of the call discussing ways in which the design could be improved and praising Alex for his ingenuity.

"Why don't we have a sauna?"

"We considered it and then kind of forgot about it between other things," Mom provided suddenly from behind her. "Hi, Rosie."

"Hi, Mom! Yeah, we should discuss this with Dad, because it's seriously _good_. I mean. I've almost cooked myself there, but it's good."

"OK, OK. If your Dad thinks we can add it on without ruining half of the house..."

Rose launched into an explanation of how the sauna in their building was hooked up and Mina relaxed a bit, Alex heavy and warm in her arms.

_I wish Rose was here every day. And Teddy, and Andr_ _é and everyone. I wish we could have a huge family dinner and just..._

She sniffed.

Well, at some point, hopefully. Maybe.

####

"The ticket prices are absurd."

"It's way too cheap for some suspicious looking individuals to buy one, I agree."

"Oh, well, I suppose I won't be buying any next time..."

She grabbed him and pulled him into an enthusiastic kiss.

"You have to start warning me you are coming. I just could have been in the middle of a laundry cycle or something."

"I would have persevered. Anyway. Can we get something to eat, please? I've been up until three in the morning, watching a post-surgery cat, who tried walking but forgot how many paws he had, so he kept tripping over them. I beg you, my love, coffee and something hot...!"

"Well, I have something hot right here, I suppose, but I think you meant an actual meal."

He kissed her, groaning at the very bad pun.

"Yes, please. First I need actual food, then we can come back here and revisit this option."

"Let me dress a bit. It is a pretty ugly January out there."

"Just don't take too long or I will expire out of hunger, and then what will you do?"

"Push you into one of the canals, quite mercilessly."

"Heartless!"

"Better heartless than brainless!"

"Oh, you!"

"Well, who told me the last time that he loses his mind whenever he looks at me?"

"Well..."

"Yeah. OK. That should do," she finally found her coat and wrapped a scarf around herself. "Let's go. The fries in the little shop on the corner are to die for, even you can't deny yourself some carbs in the middle of the winter."

André sighed. And nodded.

"Lead me to the food, good maiden."

"Well..."

"Good woman."

"Much better. Anyway. Down, left and let's get ourselves stuffed."

"Mhm."

They ended up getting two packets each, with several different sauces ("Not _that_ " "Why?" "Do you want to sleep on the couch? Then go on, order garlic sauce") and came back to the flat, because other patrons kept giving them dirty looks when they started feeding each other. That probably might have been a bit too much even for the good citizens of Amsterdam.

"Let's put some show on?" she suggested, picking up the remote, but then André was there, kissing her. "Or we could take something off, that works too."

Sauna was, after all, only one of several ways to warm up in the middle of the winter.

####

_February_

####

"Is that grandma Darcy's jewelry?"

"That's a lot of sparkly stuff."

"Diamonds, Rose."

"Are you sure we should be touching this?"

"I feel like it belongs on... someone older."

"You've turned one and twenty last year," Dad explained. "If we were living two hundred years ago, you'd be full adults by now."

"Yet still not allowed to have our own money."

"Or get education."

"Or do anything exciting."

"Well, the money thing wasn't that bad..."

"It depended on the males in the family, so it was exactly that bad."

"Well, it seems the men in the family of Darcy were reasonable. One of my great-great-great-something-aunts, a Miss Darcy at the end of the eighteenth century, had taken a house in town, as her brother had given her her dowry money, and she lived there happily with a companion and a _bosom friend_."

Rose snorted.

"So Aunt Georgiana isn't the first in the family...?"

"The first woman to marry a woman, yes, but definitely not the first to live with one," Aunt Georgiana entered, her own gown sleek and steely blue. "And, statistically speaking, there had to be one or two Mister Darcys who yearned after the male form, but were forced by convention to marry a woman."

"At least one younger son had actually spent his life as a librarian at some university or other, taking quaters with another librarian, also male."

"Ah, to be a younger son. All of the nobility of the name, none of responsibility. OK, why are we talking about ancestors suddenly?"

"Sentimental trip to the times of Regency. Also, I was thinking about the old court introduction thing, but these two are too old for that now. Also, would they have managed to keep serious in the face of all that aristocratic silliness?"

"And the whole thing was about getting engaged. Which Mina already is, and Rose...?"

"And Rose is none of your business," she said with a grin. "But if I ever need to, I'd rather pick my Winterfair hero over any kind of debutante ball tomfoolery. Who even does this anymore?"

"They are supposedly a valid way for people to network," Mina provided. "Season is the way to meet business contacts and make connections. For some."

"Maybe you should go this year. Take that poster boy of yours out on the town. Be seen by people."

Mina rolled her eyes, but then the room quieted and she looked up, only to see Aunt Georgiana and Dad eyeing her speculatively.

"What? No! No way! Season in bloody London? As if I didn't have enough stress in my life as it is?!"

"We could make it a simpler version," Dad pointed out. "Check in with some of my business contacts, and just go for two, three weeks... Pick a lighter period at the firm, provide for our absence at the big house."

"Dad..."

"Take Mom and Alex. Show your brother the underground and the train stations, since we managed to keep him away from them until now. Take him for a museum trip. Hm?"

Mina sighed.

Rose hugged her from the side, pressing into her warmly.

"Make it August and I'll join you," she winked at Dad.

"August in London stinks," Mom said suddenly. "But a week can't hurt. Even two. We could rent an appartment for all of us and visit the family this way. Come on, kitten. We'll go to a big swimming pool and do some shopping...?"

Mina pouted.

"But if Alex wants to stay in the ZOO all day, we stay," she prevaricated. "And no _events_ , like, like some Ascot or something."

"The ZOO, the British Museum, the Technical Museum and Kensington Gardens. He is very much fascinated with Peter Pan now."

"But, some grownup events in the evenings," Dad said seriously. "I'll set up some dinners with a few guys I've stayed in touch with. We're not going to matchmake, obviously, but it would be good for the two of you to meet some of _their_ children."

"Daaaad, that sounds like a playdate!"

"Well, that's what it essentially is. And if you get these boys of yours to join you, I could consider making an effort and getting you some tickets to a play. Or two."

"Ooh?" Rose tilted her head. "Which one for example? Have you been checking the West End programmes, Dad?"

"I mean... There is that thing, the poster is kinda yellow, and there is like a star on it... with a guy standing on the top?"

Mina blinked.

"Hamilton is coming back to West End?!"

"Yep. After 2020, when the whole season just _failed_ for all plays, they are making a revival this year. And I might have heard a little gossip..."

He had the attention of all the room at that moment.

"William, either you tell us that gossip, or I will hurt you," Mom said suddenly.

"Two second weeks it's not the West End company -- or at least not every day -- that's giving the show."

"William Francis Adam..."

"Original cast..." Rose heard Aunt Lucy gasp. "Look, Georgie, the original cast...!"

Mina snorted.

"OK, you bought me. I'm cheap. Two Hamilton tickets for the original cast evening and I will spend the rest of these two weeks smiling at people."

"That's not _cheap_ at all, my dear. Aaaand, bought. Lucy, you have yours in the e-mail. The girls have the first evening and we four have the second one. Someone has to make sure Alex is well entertained, right?"

####

"I wish the boys could have been here," she sniffed as she took out the flowers pinned in her hair.

"They would have danced with us all evening."

"Instead of all the old so-called gentlemen."

"At least we were able to escape sometimes."

"Claiming being at work is a perfect cover."

"Even though one of them..."

"I told Dad. He will deal with it."

"Good."

She pulled at the zipper, but her sister took over the task and helped her out of the incredible dress. They switched, another zipper went down...

"You wash first, I'll hang them."

Soon the water running marked her sister's ablutions, while she picked up all the smaller pieces and straightened them, one by one.

"Your turn. I'll put some movie on."

Clean and warm in their flannel pyjamas, they stretched out on the bed, watching mindlessly the moving pictures.

"You miss him."

"Like crazy."

"Yeah. Same."

A beat. Or two.

"Are you afraid?"

Another beat.

"Every bloody day. Every day his graduation is closer. And then the army. And then the assignments..."

"Come here," Rose reached out and closed the laptop. "Come, let me hold you."

####

_March_

####

"My butt is complaining."

"You just don't exercise it enough."

"I tried biking around the neighbourhood, but with a laptop bag and a phone and... well, turns out my little electric is much better than anything else. And I look more dignified and less muddy after that."

"Oh, well, if _dignity_ is what you are after..."

"Well, better to be clean in front of an investor or an inspection. But I will consider actually biking for leisure purposes. Just to harden my poor behind a bit, in case I need it. Seems Star's saddle is not enough..."

Rose hugged her sister closer. After all that time, it was Mina who was left to exercise Star, even though she had been shying away from the horses for so long.

"She misses you, by the way. She knows I'm just a substitute. I've never seen a creature look at me with this kind of reproach. Every time I go to the stables, she perks up and then it's like 'oh, it's _her_ ', like I'm a replacement player in a team or something. She obviously allows me to saddle her and likes running around a bit, but she isn't _delighted_ with me."

"Mina..."

"Hey, hey. Just saying you have to give her some extra love next time you go home. You know, take her, get André to bring his bloody big stallion around and go riding."

"That sounds like an option to consider. And what about you, and your soldier? How are you two getting on?"

"Eh. Teddy's mostly tired? I think. We had some weekends when I could visit, but we were mostly catching up on sleep then. Watching shows and trying to, kind of, just... Spend time together. Without any added pressure. Dunno. Cook. Go for a walk. Without any craziness."

"Sleeping in, watching TV, cooking together... How long have you two been married, exactly?"

"Rose!"

"You sound like an old married couple, seriously."

"We... we don't. We just both need. Quiet."

Rose bit her lip. If everything went according to their career plans, the last thing Teddy would have would be 'quiet'.

"Well then. Let's go do a bit of shopping and find you a nice souvenir for Teddy. Maybe something to spice up your life, because it seems so middle-aged! And you are younger than me!"

####

The house was empty, which was good. She was tired and angry and very much fed up with everything and everyone, including her coworkers, suppliers, clients, subcontractors and even the bloody sales clerk that managed to ring her up with an error _twice_ and then complained she had too much shopping.

She dumped the bags in the kitchen, put the ice-cream safely away and decided that what she needed was a long, long shower and maybe an evening at the piano.

Luckily she was still alone when she emerged from her room, now in Teddy's pilfered flannel shirt and the softest pair of yoga pants she could find, so she set up the score in front of her and started working though it.

"One day, I will get you," she said, stretching a bit after a straight hour of punishing the keys. "I'm not Argerich, but one day, I will nail this."

"Are you threatening your mother's piano, Starlight?"

She jumped a bit, managing not to bump her knee on the bottom of the piano stand, and turned to face Teddy, who was standing in the doorway.

"How long have you been there?" she asked, eyeing him, all soft and relaxed and _homey_.

"About half an hour? Mrs R let me in, but she said she was packing... what?"

"Mrs R has decided to move to Swindon, to be with her nieces. She isn't feeling very well up here 'in the North'. That last winter really affected her, and she's been mostly staying with them..."

"She's been working for your Dad how long?"

"Since Georgiana was a little girl," the housekeeper appeared behind them. "But I can still help you two get the dinner ready, if someone tall and strong would take down some things in the kitchen. And someone much smaller would put away the shopping."

"I can cook anyway," Mina stretched. "Was planning on making a heap of bean and zucchini pasta. Alex is in a green phase," she explained to Teddy, who trailed behind them into the kitchen. "You sit down and have your tea. Teddy, fetch the over dish from the top shelf... yeah, that deep one. And let me check if we have everything."

Half an hour later they were chatting companionably, as the zucchini was slowly cooking and the pasta was already draining over the sink, when the door opened.

"We're in the kitchen!"

"Is there anything that Alex can eat?" Mom's voice was exhausted. "There was a huge jam in front of the bridge and we were stuck for ages. He is positively dying of hunger."

"You can get the cooked broad beans, baby," Mina informed Alex quickly. "But first, wash your hands and say hello to Teddy."

"Hi, Teddy," the boy mouthed from over the sink.

"Here, your plate, this should tide you over until the pasta is done."

Her brother pouted.

"But..."

"It will be ready in half an hour."

"But Minnie..."

"You know how long half an hour is."

"Yyyeaaah... But it's very long."

"Not at all. Now, Mom, tea?"

The overn dish was wiped and lined with butter, then layers of pasta, zucchini, beans and cheese.

"Why do you add butter everywhere, Minnie? _Rose_ uses olive oil."

"Because that's what I use and oil is what Rose uses. When Rose comes, you can ask her to bake. For now, you'll have to deal with it being buttery."

She put the dish in the oven and found herself snapping the door closed quite firmly.

"Once this rings, you guys can eat," she sniffed, feeling a wave of anger that she didn't want to take out on anyone, but was very close to. "I need to take a nap."

She heard Teddy's steps following her, but didn't stop -- but she didn't close her doors either.

She allowed herself be hugged and held in silence for quite a while.

"What was that, Starlight?"

A sigh.

"Everything I do, Alex asks why I'm doing it differently to Rose. It's like... Like he is making it a thing. And it's the same all over. Why it's not Rose taking over the house, why I'm not doing a design degree like Rose, if I like crafts so much, why, why. I can't even bake stupid pasta without getting asked why I'm doing it differently!"

"Hey, hey," he prodded her chin up, forcing her to face him. "I'm definitely very happy that you are right here. I assure you, it would be a much weirder situation if it was Rose right here."

She huffed a small laugh into his shoulder, but it wasn't very happy.

"Now, do you want to go downstairs and eat... Or I could fetch you a plate and we can eat up here?"

She bit her lip.

"Up here?" she decided tentatively. "I'll clean the desk."

Teddy was back in a few minutes, with two plates and a bag holding two juice bottles.

"Your mom said they had just fetched these from the basement, so they should be cool."

They sat down at her desk, knees touching underneath, quietly devouring the dinner, sharing first the apple then the blackberry-apple juice.

"This is from last summer?"

"Yeah. There were so many blackberries in the garden we didn't manage to get the preserves done in time, so we ran a small batch through the press and it was so terribly tart we had to mix it with apple. But it's pretty good now."

Teddy's kisses tasted of blackberry now, as they fell back on the bed.

"Mmm. I was supposed to tell you something important... Ah. August. In August, we are taking two weeks to go to London. Your presence is expected on the fifteenth, in a theatre-ready state of dress."

"Theatre-ready, you say? And what would be the reason?"

"The reason is my dad bribed me with Hamilton tickets. So I'll have to go to several dinners with some of his business associates or university friends or... whatever. Networking, apparently."

"Poor Starlight... do you need my support? Will the presence of your big, threatening fiance make this easier or harder on you?"

She shrugged, but snuggled closer.

"Who knows. I'm pretty sure some would be quite impressed by my fiance, with his big engineering course and military school and..."

Blackberries had never before tasted that good.

####

_April_

####

The whole week before Easter was carefully planned in such a way that nothing, absolutely nothing was supposed to interrupt the preparation, the cleaning (of both the finished portions of the main manor house and the entirety of the little one) and whatever time for relaxation they could find in between.

Which mean, of course, that Alex had to catch a stomach bug just a week before, which left him absolutely miserable and positively cantankerous, his mood only brightening once the cousins arrived and filled both houses with noise.

Mary, Jimmy, Lydia and Delly were staying in the guest rooms in the family house, while Jane's, Kitty's and Richard's families took several of the newly ready rooms in the "planned to be a B&B" section of the manor. "For a test drive," as Mina had put it. All of them had been sternly ordered to report any kind of issues "to the management". Which meant Mina.

Elizabeth was watching her baby girl with awe, as everything was carefully set up and prepared in time and the skeleton maintenance staff managed the small problems without a hiccup. Of course, it wasn't as convenient as having everyone under one roof, but then, the objective of the smaller house was to have it, well, smaller. Even with Rose and Mina in one room, while Jackie and Bella took Rose's, and other's squeezed as much as they could, it would have still left Kitty's group in the main house, so it was better to divide everyone up reasonably and not have to either displace Rose nor secure Georgiana's old room to allow more people in.

Also, the breakfast was much more manageable and less noisy this way, for both groups. They only got together after everyone had eaten and were spending a lazy week of family gossip, easy catching up and tentative vacation plans.

"In July, we want to scout some locations in Yorkshire that Charles thinks are promising," Jane said as they were looking through Elizabeth's latest project. "He wants to move up north. We want to more up north, in fact. All of us."

"You're saying 'up north' as if it was the Arctic Circle. What happened? London got too annoying?"

"It's becoming frankly unbearable in the city. Global warming sucks. Charles can run his business from almost anywhere, most of his subcontractors are anyway all over the country, and his office in London is like four people. He already has a little outpost in Leeds and at least two of his London employees are willing to move. It will be cheaper, healthier... And closer to you."

Elizabeth stretched the unfinished piece of quilting across the table and smoothed it out.

"I'm all for it. You should stay where it's better for you, Janey. July? What will you do about the kids?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Could I leave the middle three with you for that time? Johnny has a soccer training camp for six weeks and Jackie wants to go camping with her high school classmates, as a kind of post-graduation thing, but I can't find anything for the rest that would be reasonable, lasted more than a week and was in the same exact period. But if you could just... You know. Feed them, make sure they don't drown, make them work in the garden. They are all in agreement that they'd rather stay with you, in relative quiet, than in the city."

She looked up at Jane's worried face and dropped the fabric, pulling her sister into a hug.

"Just pack them enough clothes and sunscreen and drop them off on our doorstep whenever the school year ends," she said immediately. "And go find a new home. Or if you can't find one, we _do_ have a manor house somewhere around here that could easily swallow even the seven of you..."

"Lizzy, we want a house, not a renovation project for five generations."

"Ah, well. It was just an idea."

"Stop having ideas and show me that peacock quilt you've been putting together for the last year."

####

_"How is your Individual Project coming along?"_

Mina stopped herself from groaning.

Everyone was asking that.

Because-- Well, because she had made an ambitious attempt and--

And now she wasn't sure she was going to make it work.

Everyone had these complicated sounding research topics that probably needed a lot of googling, buying access to statistical databases, academic journals (which the university provided them with already) and time.

What she needed was human input.

Which.

Was.

Hard.

She had that brilliant, brilliant idea of combining the IT platform she wanted to create one day with the work she was doing on the Estate, with the services to the community--

Answering the questions like: How to put together the Pemberley juice press being free with the farmer on the other end of Derbyshire who has too many apples and with the truck company that has downtimes or empty runs?

With an application.

How to get all of them to use it without the connotations of Big Brother watching them?

Hah.

_Despite the general resistance towards the idea of having each of their actions registered, many potential users may come to adopt the solution once its safety and non-intrusive nature is proven. A careful information campaign, delineating the benefits and risk management will be required (see ch. 4) in order to facilitate the introduction of the solution in the pilot region._

_It is absolutely necessary for the providers of the services to be varied, and adoption of the solution should be first sought amongst the companies offering them, and only once this catalogue is created, the offer may be made to the suppliers._

Just as the farmer from down the road had told her, "I'd put me apples on your page, missy, but what fer? If I dunno who would take'm, why bother writin' the numbers?"

 _"Mina?_ "

She had apparently blanked out on Teddy, but he had been waiting, watching her on his Skype for-- three minutes? Wow.

"Yeah, well-- I'm still struggling. I have the whole last term to deal with it, and then present and publish-- but--"

_"Starlight."_

"I just can't get it right, OK? I know what's supposed to be there, but-- but I'm not sure if my conclusions make sense?"

_"What are you missing?"_

"Twenty years of experience in farming."

Teddy was silent for a moment, rubbing his temples.

_"Who do you have available that would, potentially, have that experience?"_

"But, Teddy, Dad's been so-- so worried, and tired, and I can't just dump this on him--!"

_"Will he be less worried if you fret more about this all alone?"_

"N-no."

_"Will you be able to do your job better if someone beta-reads this for you at least?"_

"Yes."

_"Then save that file, share it to your Dad and ask him for his opinion. Now."_

"Yes, Teddy."

_"Good Starlight. Go."_

####

_May_

####

William had to admit that he might have bitten more than he could chew. What with the whole sauna project that Rose managed to talk him into, and Mina's application ideas that he was now providing his input on, Alex getting suddenly fascinated with horses and Charles asking for his opinion about this or that piece of real estate, he was becoming quite busy. Very, very busy in fact.

He could delay this or that, tell Charles to give him the whole list of questions in one e-mail, or ask Alex to maybe wait for Rose to come back, but he definitely couldn't not help Mina.

Therefore the sauna project was delayed and Charles was ordered to give him all the locations in one complete set, and so Mina's project was given the priority... While Mina herself was providing an oversight for Alex's riding attempts at a farm park down by the agricultural center. This gave Alex the horse time with a qualified teacher, got Mina out of the house for something other than work or visiting Teddy and forced Alex to stop comparing Mina to Rose in every other sentence, because that was becoming quite old to everyone, not just Mina herself.

The application itself was finally created (with some helpful hints from Elizabeth), the needed server was set up and some initial customers were registered to test the idea, Mina's project was finished and submitted, waiting for feedback, and they could only wait.

Now he was stuck comparing several options of sauna constructions and he had no idea what he was looking at and why the hell there were such huge differences in prices, but it was starting to seriously annoy him.

Someone knocked on his door.

Inside the house? The girls were always barging into his study, since he and Mina shared the documentation, Elizabeth never knocked...

"Come in?"

Theodore peeked inside.

"Mrs Darcy asked me to call you downstairs. Mina and Alex are stuck in the traffic by the bridge _again_ , but the dinner is apparently ready..."

Poor boy must have arrived on his bike just before the afternoon peak, and so had been pressed into helping in the kitchen, judging by his rolled-up sleeves and wet hands.

"Just give me two minutes to get these saved, or I will lose the place again and never get this finished. And I maybe have kind of promised the girls to get the whole thing installed by the time their birthday rolls around, so..."

"What is it?"

"A sauna. Basically, something they suggested when we were drafting the ideas for the house, but was never included. I was reminded of the fact and wanted to put one in."

Teddy nodded slowly.

"And what seems to be an issue?"

"Everything. There are ready made ones and companies that build on order and others that offer half-customised solutions and I'm not sure which to choose, considering I've only had to include the ready made ones in plans until now. But they seem so limiting, and maybe we'd make better use of ground shape or local timber, or something else, if I went for fully customised option, but then... Their prices are all over the place."

Teddy scuffed his shoe against the floor for a second or two.

"I could make take a look? Just to, you know, see what the differences are? I'm not saying I can help a lot, since I've never seen how one of these is built, but maybe we could research?"

William leaned back in his chair and took a long look at his (he couldn't shy away from it anymore) future son-in-law. Asking to be allowed to help to make something for Mina and Rose.

"Sure. Let's go downstairs and then, when you have half an hour, we can come back here and review what I have. A second pair of eyes is always useful."

####

_June_

####

Mina was-- on the brink of throwing up.

She was queued as the fourth to present and she was terrified. Frozen inside.

Shaking apart.

There were people filling the room, other course participants, families, friends-- Everyone was still gathering, but she couldn't _see_ anyone of her family from where she was standing.

_Should have worn the fucking heels!_

But on the heels she would have been wobbly.

Also, she had promised herself _not_ to use heels or lifts to give herself the boost of self-confidence.

She did.

_Oh my God, I'm so going to hurl._

She wasn't a praying person. She had never been.

But now she felt the need for a divine intervention.

Maybe a lightning from the clear June sky, to immolate her in place.

Maybe a sudden flood to get the event cancelled.

Maybe--

"Minnie!"

_Rose._

Rose, in her dark purple pantsuit, her hair done up in a huge knot with some Chinese-style hairpins stuck into it--

"Where-- How?"

"Dad picked me up at the airport two hours ago. Bloody direct flight was late, imagine that. I-- Stop crying, you'll smudge your makeup!"

"N-Not wearing any-- Just in case."

"Smart. OK. Come on, do you have an assigned seat? Can I sit somewhere close? Or can we take three places?"

"What? Yes, there are-- I'm sitting in the first row, but we can sit on the side for now-- Where's Dad?"

"Getting a place for Mom and Alex on the gallery. He sent me down here to find you and distract you. Is it working?"

Mina breathed in, deeply.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think it is."

"Good, because the real distraction is stuck in the crowd. He may be taller, but he's shit at forcing his way through."

_But-- it is Thursday, Teddy--_

She looked wildly around, trying to find him, but the people were _too tall_.

"Come on, sit. I'll text him where we are. See? He'll find us."

He did.

Of course he did.

And he was quite an appropriate distraction - for her and everyone around, too, since he was literally turning heads, in his blue dress shirt and _very_ well-fitting slacks.

"I think there are rules regarding indecent clothing, Mister Strickland."

"I'm sure I'm not uncovering an undue amount of skin, Miss Darcy."

"Thankfully, or someone might have arrested you before you even got here. These trousers are improper just by themselves."

"Maybe I was hoping you'd be thinking about me, instead of panicking."

She sniffed, mock-derisively.

"That would depend on your ability to attract my attention."

"I hope I can have _all_ of your attention later--"

"You two are indecent without even kissing."

####

"It's weird. She is the youngest of us three and she has her Master's degree already. André is the eldest and he's getting his Bachelor's in two weeks...!"

"Unfair."

"Unnatural."

Mina rolled her eyes at her sister.

"Teddy will have his in a year, and you in two. Take your time. I'll be working on fifteen different projects at once when this summer is finished-- What?"

Teddy was looking down. Away.

"I-- My thesis defence has been moved. To September."

"W-what? How?"

"The project is nearly done, and the theoretical part has been approved. I have all the courses signed off, credits and grades all there - a lot has been covered by the officer school, so I don't have to do it twice - and-- And they want me permanently on the base starting from fall. My class got the early graduation offer."

"What."

"First wave is going to be done in January next year. I'm not going to be in it, but probably in March."

"Uncle Richard--"

"I've already spoken to the Brigadier. The official version is actually true and complete and he told me to go with the March wave. There is an immediate need for qualified engineers and construction experts, because of the current climate changes and-- I'll let you read the letter I got. This means I'll have my first assignment by this time next year."

She pressed her lips into a thin line.

Squeezed her eyes shut.

"Wh-where would it be? Is there--?"

"Domestic. They said first half year is a domestic assignment. They don't send wet-behind-the-ears second Lieutenants out into the world just like this."

She nodded mutely.

And she didn't let go of his hand until the end of the evening.

####

"Oslo."

"Trondheim."

"Narvik."

"Lofoten Islands."

"What are you two...?"

Rose glanced at Dad, but quickly got back to what they were doing, since Mina managed to mark two more points in that time.

"Mapping our trip," her sister answered distractedly. "Since Teddy has whole July and half of August taken with his diploma project and putting finishing touches on his dissertation and André has to fill in his internship hours at the vet office and in the clinic, and you've threatened to cut off my access to the main house in the summer anyway, I'm kidnapping Rose. We're going on a trip across Norway."

"Or rather, up Norway. There's not that much 'across' to Norway."

"We're flying in to Oslo on the second of July and have a flight back from Evenes to Manchester through Oslo on the thirtieth."

"We've found a company that rents out small motorhomes and you can drop them off on any airport in the country."

"So we pick one up in Oslo and return it in Evenes."

"We'll see all the stupid historical sites and stuff."

"And go swimming in the Norwegian sea."

"Collect pretty stones and seaglass."

"See fjords."

"Be beyond the Arctic Circle in time to see sun at midnight."

"Rose has her student visa for EU and I've just received a tourist one for myself, so we can nip over to Finland if we have time."

"Or Sweden."

"Or Sweden, too. Or both."

Dad shook his head mutely and patted Rose's shoulder.

"Have fun. But, if anything-- If there are any noises about quarantine or isolation or _anything_ like this, you drive to the nearest possible airport, drop the car off and buy the first possible tickets home. No matter the price, I don't want you two to get stuck somewhere for weeks."

She looked at Mina.

They nodded in unison.

"And if you need additional luggage because you'll be hauling half of the offer of Norwegian yarn, the family account will still survive. Just don't buy any suspicious foodstuffs, please. I don't want you two to get arrested on customs because you tried to smuggle in some weird canned fish thing."

####

_July_

####

Rose @rosygirl - 02/07/2025 17:35

Oslo is lovely, the customs are a pain in the ass and my little sister is already buying #yarn. @minimina

M.D. @minimina - 02/07/2025 18:10

Replying to @rosygirl

Don't complain, you've already bought a Moomin Victorinox knife.

M.D. @minimina - 04/07/2025 00:15

Should I kill that huge fat spider in the corner of the cabin, or should I scream for help, like a proper damsel in distress?

Rose @rosygirl - 04/07/2025 04:50

Replying to @minimina

WHAT SPIDER.

Rose @rosygirl - 05/07/2025 09:30

At Jotunheimen National Park.

_Lake.jpg_

Rose @rosygirl - 06/07/2025 23:10

It's unnatural. We've been driving all day and it's. Still. BRIGHT.

Mina's so focused on the road that I'm taking photos so she can see what we drove by.

M.D. @minimina - 07/07/2025 11:20

Just woke up and hello Trondheim!

Never again driving that late. But it was so worth it.

M.D. @minimina - 10/07/2025 00:20

Yeah. Polar circle and-- Here's the midnight sun. At: Mo i Rana.

_not_a_sunset001.jpg_

Rose @rosygirl - 15/07/2025 02:30

It's very funny when you wake up in the middle of the night and the sun is. Just. There. I mean seriously who approved this?

M.D. @minimina - 15/07/2025 02:35

Replying to @rosygirl

Not sure, but if you wake me up again, I'll kick you out of the car and you'll be sleeping outside.

M.D. @minimina - 17/07/2025 11:37

Yarn!

Rose @rosygirl - 17/07/2025 11:40

Replying to @minimina

We've been on the Lofoten Islands for two hours. She's found three different yarnshops already. We're doomed.

Rose @rosygirl - 18/07/2025 00:53

At Narvik. First sunset here for this summer. Sunrise in 40 minutes, stay tuned.

M.D. @minimina - 18/07/2025 01:33

And here's the sun back. It's weird. Very weird.

M.D. @minimina - 19/07/2025 13:22

I might have to buy an additional bag. Or a suitcase. Not sure.

Rose @rosygirl - 19/07/2025 13:25

...and then she bought a full set of traditional Norwegian outfit, apron included.

M.D. @minimina - 19/07/2025 13:28

Replying to @rosygirl

While she bought a set of sweaters for herself and A. Hopefully he likes being swathed in beige.

Rose @rosygirl - 20/07/2025 19:03

Walked into the Norwegian Sea in my sandals. It's cold.

M.D. @minimina - 20/07/2025 20:44

Seaglass and rocks and shells. Our haul from Narvik.

Rose @rosygirl - 21/07/2025 08:05

On our way towards Sweden!

M.D. @minimina - 21/07/2025 16:20

My sister will be complaining again, but well...

_yarn_basket.jpg_

Rose @rosygirl - 21/07/2025 16:30

Replying to @minimina

JFC... Why? I thought you went to buy some yoghurt!

M.D. @minimina - 22/07/2025 11:20

Mid-morning coffee in Muonio!

Rose @rosygirl - 22/07/2025 12:03

Replying to @minimina

And we also went shopping and guess what she found in the local K-market...

_j-l-picard-facepalm.jpg_

Rose @rosygirl - 22/07/2025 19:03

At the campsite in tundra. I always thought tundra would look less like Derbyshire, but hey, I'm happy to be wrong here. Although the amount of clover is weird.

M.D. @minimina - 23/07/2025 15:00

On the other side of this gate is the border area and... Russia. Yeah, we're back in Norway, just a different part of it. Today we spend the first night of this whole journey in a proper hotel, by the shore of a fjord that makes it technically Barents Sea.

Rose @rosygirl - 25/07/2025 22:20

Back in Norway, and we'll definitely need two suitcases. And yes, this time it's also my fault.

M.D. @minimina - 26/07/2025 10:00

Sleeping in. Watching the sea. Rose went out to collect more seaglass. She has some plan for it. Maybe using them in the next garden project?

M.D. @minimina - 27/07/2025 23:30

Sea. That little dot on the other side of the marina is Rose. Probably.

Rose @rosygirl - 28/07/2025 19:03

Mina bought a flower press and is collecting local specimens. I'm afraid she's planning a scrapbook...!

M.D. @minimina - 29/07/2025 07:00

Up and can't sleep. Last sightseeing today, last shopping and then the DREADED PACKING.

Rose @rosygirl - 29/07/2025 17:20

All packed, we just needed to buy an additional suitcase and two large bags. Tomorrow early start and... back home.

M.D. @minimina - 30/07/2025 18:00

Hello, Manchester.

####

_August_

####

Mom took one look at the photos Rose showed before they got to the Norway ones and shuddered with dread, so the rest of the story was mostly attended to by Dad and Mina, who were looking appropriately fascinated and, dare she say, somewhat tempted.

"And there is water on both sides-- it's like bridge, or what is it?"

"Like a huge dam. Ninety meters wide or so."

"But it looks like you were driving right next to the water!"

"We were. I mean, it's basically not that much if you count the slopes on the sides and that there are parking spaces and so on. But there is a spot in the middle with a gas station and something like a village? A tiny one? Anyway, people work and live there."

"I'll have to visit you this year--" Mina trailed off. "Well, when I have time. Anyway. This looks amazing."

"Come around our birthday, we'll make it a weekend trip, and we'll go tulip buying. You'll be able to plant them before the frosts come then."

"Do you have any good places--?"

"I have the _best_ places. I've made friends with some of the suppliers that work for the school and I think they'd be happy to get an order together for an estate like Pemberley. Hm?"

Mina sat there, chewing her lip. And smiled.

"Yeah. Let's add something new."

"So, I was thinking parrot tulips..."

Mina slid closer, pressing them side to side.

"Show me. We have to make it pretty."

"Girl, with my new mad skillz and your powers of management, we'll make it glamorous. See? Apricot parrot tulip."

"Whoa. Imagine a whole plot of these, maybe mixed with something darker."

"Black parrot. See."

Mina nodded, slowly. Slowly.

"You'll have to pick a plot that's far from the main managed garden," Dad pointed out. "Since tulips aren't on the list."

"Rose, you make me a specification of the sunlight and water needs and I'll find the right spot. Or several. Because why not."

"Sure, give me a moment, I have them here--"

####

"De Bourgh! Someone asking for you!"

"Is it furry, scaly or-- Oh, Rose, um."

"I can hiss, if it helps."

Someone in the waiting room giggled.

"Taking a five!"

"Take fifteen, nobody for you on the list--"

They huddled in the corner of the entrance porch, in the last triangle of shade.

"Did your land manager sister let you have a day off today?"

"Mina's out on a site, making some dumbass delivery man sorry for running over a clump of new spruces. He had basically decapitated the whole bunch and the owners' kid is bawling her eyes out. Mina has found a supplier that will bring in new saplings, but she's still mad about the sheer waste of good plant life. Anyway, she told me to go bother you and to remind you that we're leaving on Monday and you are expected to show up, all tarted up, two weeks from now, Friday afternoon, at the address Dad gave you."

"Mina actually said 'tarted up'?" he raised an eyebrow, crowding Rose in a bit.

"She said 'dressed properly', but considering Teddy is probably going to be in his uniform, I expect you to don something that will make us at least as decorative. It is not an opening night, but it is the first night with the original cast, so kind of like opening. Probably. She had already picked out dresses for us, and what's worse, I can't even protest, because she knows what she's doing... Anyway. Do you have something appropriate?"

He dipped in for a kiss.

"Let's see what I can come up with," he promised, already considering what Aunt Maura could be pressed into lending to her favourite grand-nephew, because he could remember that absolutely stunning dinner jacket set...

"I expect to be totally bowled over," his lover declared pertily. "Now, when are you going to be done torturing kittens and sticking puppies with needles?"

"Rose!" he glanced around, scandalised, but there were no small children eavesdropping, thankfully.

"So?"

"Half past five."

She patted his cheek and smiled.

"I'm taking you out for a dinner then. Nothing fancy, all you have to be is awake and hungry."

"Hungry, you say..."

"Dinner first."

####

London, true to Aunt Jane's warnings, was barely bearable in August. Dad had chosen a nice appartment in Kensington and they were spending the days either sheltering in well-conditioned interiors or in a variety of museums, or, in the case of whoever was going out with Alex, in the Kensington Gardens.

There were evening engagements, mostly avoided by Mom, who swore she was not joining more than two a week - to Dad's disappointment - but faithfully attended by Mina and Rose. They found some of Dad's business associates quite dull and tiresome, what with them being from the "William, but think about your son!" school.

Dad actually apologised profusely to Mina after one of the men started questioning the idea of sharing the management of a thriving business venture with a daughter. In front of said man, in fact. There were some unkind words uttered by both parties and the offending not-an-associate-anymore flounced away with a huff, leaving the others at the table speechless.

"That will be one name to drop from my contacts," said a lady to Mina's left. "Seriously, this turns out to be a perfect way to update one's social network. And e-mail filtering rules, if need be. Anyone else here wants to defend the patriarchy in the most imbecilic way possible? No? Maybe make noises about little girls not bothering they pretty little heads with numbers? No takers? Comment about spatial awareness anyone...?"

Everyone was very, very quiet.

"How nice," she smiled and speared a bit of cheese on her fork. "Now, young Rose. Tell me about your school. You're studying in Amsterdam, right?"

Only after a few minutes Mina managed to put together the face and the facts, since she must have blanked out when the lady was being introduced, but Rose was in fact chatting easily with the head editor of one of the major gardening design magazines on the UK market, one that she, Mina, had been subscribing to since the moment it first showed in the shops three years prior.

"...and maybe you'd like to write a column for me, about the situation of a design student like you? People have very varied interests and I'm sure there are some youngsters who would be fascinated to hear what one studies at such a school."

Rose looked positively gobsmacked.

"Like... me? Write a column about..."

"About studying horticulture. Add some good photos of whatever you think is of interest, from tulips to city scapes and we'll make it a recurring thing, if you can make it snappy and informative."

"I... I'd have to..."

Mina elbowed her quickly.

"Just write nicely the same stuff you send to me," she suggested. "You have like a ton of things you've already photographed, and you have all the little e-mails and insta posts you've made. And we had this discussion when we were comparing what it feels like to study locally and abroad..."

"W-well..."

"Think about it, dearie," the lady redactor patted her hand. "We need fresh blood and new points of view. That also applies to you, missy," she turned to Mina immediately. "What was it that I've heard about you managing a juice press initiative for the neighbours?"

"Dad...!"

"What. I was just bragging about you, ducky. Am I not allowed to?"

"My card, lovelies. And anyway your Dad knows my e-mail, but. If you want to talk about it more. And, William, I want to make Pemberley my Christmas issue feature."

"Margaret..."

"What. Three birds with one stone, I'm being economical. Don't tell me you aren't doing a supreme kind of to-do."

"Well, but if you want to have it ready for Christmas, we'd have to set up at least a month in advance...!"

She shrugged innocently, drinking her wine in lieu of an answer.

"Margaret! I'm not messing up the schedule of works at the mansion just because you want to..."

"I'm sure Mina here is quite capable of making this work for us. I mean, you are sharing the estate management with her, after all."

"Well, we could..."

"No, Mina. Don't take the bait. She will reel you in and squeeze you dry before you notice. Margaret, go practice your predatory skills on someone else."

"If you say so. But you two, don't forget to e-mail me. I'll see what kind of texts you can produce and we can draft a contract."

"And I'll be bloody checking every letter of it," Dad mumbled.

The rest of the evening passed by in relative quiet, Rose making friends with a young man managing a full-sized horse farm and Mina chatting about the sustainable solutions for reducing waste from overproduction of fruit in peak years, but the moment they got back into their appartment, Dad collapsed onto the sofa with a groan.

"Mina, make a note that we will be setting up the decoration and everything mid-November."

"Dad...?"

He looked up, wiping his face tiredly.

"Margaret is like a shark. Or a hound dog. Something. Anyway, she won't let it go. We will be featured in her bloody magazine for Christmas."

"William?"

"Ugh. Go, girls. Shake out your frocks for tomorrow, or whatever it is that you need to do. I have to explain to your mother how much I did not agree to 'British Spectacular Gardens' to be featuring us in the holiday edition. Go."

####

Teddy did, in fact, show up in the uniform. By now Rose was kind of used to it, even if Mina was all gooey over it every time anew. What Rose was not used to was seeing the newly minted Bachelor of Zoology, André de Bourgh, all... well, tarted up. In a fullblown midnight blue dinner jacket, tightly fitting waistcoat, trousers that underlined the length of his legs and made him seem a bit taller and an actual honest-to-God bowtie.

"Well then," Dad said in a slightly tired voice. "There is a car waiting for you downstairs, you have your tickets, and there is a dinner reservation for all four of you, Mina has the details. Be good. If you can."

"Dad...!"

"Go, go. It wouldn't do to be late, would it?"

The box they had was on the left side of the stage... or right, Mina supposed, depending which way you looked at it. Anyway, she and Rose were seated on the two middle chairs, while the boys took the side seats.

"This is the only way," said André with a smirk. "You two will be commenting the actors and the music and stuff, so we decided to cut down on negotiations and potential disturbances."

Mina scowled at him, trying to convey how unimpressed she was with his assessment, but he only shrugged and pulled Rose closer, dipping her back a bit to kiss her in a very, very ostantenous way.

"Get a room, you two," she groused.

"Later," André shot back. "For now you are stuck with us."

She rolled her eyes and nestled closer into Teddy's arms, watching the seats below and around them fill with people.

Slowly, the lights lowered.

And the music started.

"...How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..."

####

He looked down at the high updo of Mina's hair, now becoming slightly undone as she nodded off on his shoulder and then met André's eyes across the room, where Rose was fighting off sleep slightly bit better than her sister.

"We should go and let them change out of these frocks," he whispered finally. "It can't be comfortable."

Mina's hold on his hand tightened a bit.

"...or not."

They were all dressed up to the nines, but Mina and Rose really did work on their looks. He took the easy way out - the uniform was good for all the officer school students to be out and about in, including theatre, so he made use of the fact. André was wearing something posh looking and fancy, but it was still quite reasonable. The girls, however... Mina was wearing a turquoise piece that simply draped all over her curves and made her look sophisticated and mature and quite not like the construction-traipsing, up-to-her-knees-in-mud, countryside Miss Darcy she was back at home or his soft, flannel and fleece girlfriend as visited him in Southampton. He knew he should not be surprised, he had seen her dressed up quite a few times, school dances, competitions and what not, but this... this was more. This was an evening gown and evening hairdo and this was Mina Darcy...

André looked quite as entranced with Rose, so at least Teddy could claim he was not alone with the feeling of being completely and totally stupyfied by a Darcy girl.

"Come on, Starlight. At least kick off these shoes, hm?"

Mina mumbled something and burrowed closer.

"They are completely out," André whispered. "I think the dancing at the end did them in."

"Would you two shut up?" Rose mumbled. "Chattering like magpies..."

"Come on, love. Up you get, you need to take this off," André prodded Rose a bit. "Come on, Rose-girl. Shoes off."

She sat up and pouted, stretching.

"You, help," she mumbled, pointing her foot at André. Who obliged, taking care of each strap slowly and...

Yeah, whatever they were planning to do right now, they needed no witnesses of this. If they were stupid enough to get it on in the main sitting room, it wasn't Teddy's business.

He stood up, picking Mina up carefully and, cradling her head to his shoulder, carried her over to the girls' shared room.

"Te'y?" she mumbled finally when he deposited her on her bed.

"Yeah. Just making sure you won't have a crick in your neck from sleeping on the couch."

"Oh. OK. I fell asleep?"

"In the car. Had to half-carry you in."

She blinked. Looked around.

"Rose?"

"André is negotiating with her to at least take off the most restrictive parts. Now, what about you?"

She toed off the flat slippers and tried doing something with her hair, but gave up, after pulling inefficiently at some clasp in the back of her head.

"Help?"

He sat behind her and started undoing what was probably a complex engineering exercise of some kind, taking ot about half a kilo of bobby pins, little ornaments and strings of crystals.

Her hair was slowly falling down to her shoulders, strand by strand, until he had the last piece of scaffolding out of it and reached for a hairbrush.

Long, careful pulls made Mina lean forward and nearly purr, so he prolonged it way past the required point.

"It's waist-length now," he whispered. "I still remember that paige cut you were wearing when we met. You couldn't even make a regular ponytail, it was so short."

"Mhm. And now I have time and patience to deal with this, so I can afford to grow it out," she breathed, leaning into him. "Which do you prefer?"

"Mmm... I like both, I guess. I wouldn't want you to limit yourself. Whatever feels best for you. The short cut looks fun and kind of free, but then, with your hair that long, you can try different dos and I'm very much OK watching you check out the options."

"Or brushing them."

"That too. It's nice..."

Mina finally sat up and shook all over, as if trying to wake up.

"Help me unzip this?"

Pretty soon she was in her pyjamas, makeup washed away, jewellery in a bowl by the bed, and she was scooting over to the wall.

He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned in to kiss her.

"You could stay?" she suggested.

"I really couldn't."

He kissed the pout she affected and pulled her light blanket up.

"I'll be just across the hall."

Because Mr Darcy had offered him and André a place for the weekend. It was obviously easier than finding accomodations on his own, so he wasn't going to behave like a neanderthal...

He opened the door. Closed it.

"I need my bag," he said patiently.

It was handed to him.

_Just great._

Actually, it was a good thing that in the morning the "girls" room was rousted awake by Mrs Darcy, who only smiled at the picture of Mina all cuddled up to his side, asleep, while he was checking the news on his phone, while the "boys" room...

Teddy was glad that André was there to take the heat off of him. In fact, it was quite funny to watch someone else squirm as Darcy _pater_ watched him intently. They were all grown up and yet, still, a stern father looking at you heavily is very effective, without any regard to your age.

####

_September_

####

She sat, all prim and proper, her suit chosen over a long, agonising Skype session with Rose, her Captain Marvel bag in her lap, serving as a cover for her shaking hands, while her phone buzzed every few minutes, with Rose demanding updates.

From: Rose

Does it look the same as on your defence?

From: Mina

Nope. Closed exam, everyone's waiting outside. Teddy's doing a presentation in front of examiners only.

From: Rose

So you're dressed to the nines and nobody to see you.

From: Mina

I'm dressed properly for Teddy. He knows I'm here and he knows I'm supporting him. And that I'm a serious grownup.

Her attempt to read something and get into more patient headspace was interrupted by the door opening and Teddy stepping out, slowly and with visible _exhaustion_ in his posture.

A man followed him, talking quietly, and Teddy was nodding, face tense and--

"--I can only hope the Army knows what they are getting, Theodore. With your grades -- you could have easily applied for a position here."

"Thank you, professor. It is an honour, absolutely. I never thought of myself as a potential-- well, anyway, I wouldn't be able to reasonably undertake a job that would take me that far from home."

"You will be still remaining in the area, at the base, correct?"

"That's temporary -- and it depends really on the decisions of the school commanders. But my place is in Derbyshire."

He looked up and Mina smiled slightly when she saw the tension bleeding out of his posture.

"I could maybe convince you, you know. I think I might have some pretty valid arguments here."

"I'm afraid nothing beats my current commitments. Mina, this is professor G--, my project leader and thesis tutor. Sir, this is my fiancee, Mina Darcy."

The elderly teacher frowned at her.

"I think I know your face from somewhere, Miss."

"You might have seen me here and there on the campus. I've been visiting Teddy for the last three years quite regularly."

"No, no, no-- It was printed. Something printed-- newspaper. Are you a journalist?"

"I'm a building site manager, sir. I work with renovation teams in our area."

"Ah. I see. Hm hm hm. I'm quite sure I've seen you--"

"Well, maybe someone similar. I've been mistaken for other persons before."

Teddy valiantly managed not to snort, but she saw him pressing his lips into a very non-smile-y line.

"Well then. I congratulate you, young lady. You've got a good one here."

"Oh, I know," she reached out and threaded her fingers between Teddy's.

He squeezed lightly and pulled her closer.

"I just have to get some documents processed and we can go have that dinner."

"I suppose we won't see you at the graduation ceremony with the rest of your year, will we? All the best then, my boy. Make use of that head of yours, hm?"

####

_October_

####

She didn't exactly _love_ Amsterdam, because she didn't feel she could honestly love one particular place over another. Home was home, and it was good, and Derbyshire was a familiar ground, a safe space... But there were other places around the world that were fun. Amsterdam was one of them, but she also liked Vienna and Prague and Stockholm, which was what she had managed to visit using some abominably cheap plane tickets.

She liked the city however, and there were places to see and things to try still left, even after all that time.

And Mina was coming. For their birthday weekend! They were going to have so much fun!

There was of course an option of another biking trip, but there was always a risk that Mina would protest. So no biking.

There were museums, which was always a nice choice, and... They'd just have to pick something. And remember about the tulip shopping trip!

Mina had arrived right on time, stepping off the train with a shoulder bag and a small cabin case, looking a little worse for wear.

"I need coffee," she sighed. "And about a kilo of painkillers. There was a junior soccer team on board."

"What? How do you know this?"

"I had three of them behind me and they were all kicking my seat. I'm half alive by now."

"Come on. Coffee, ibuprofen and you should be right as rain."

Mina wasn't in shape quite as quickly, but they spent time chatting lazily and relaxing in the quiet of Rose's tiny flat.

"And yes, in three weeks we are starting to put the plans for the winter decorations together. Dad asked me to beg you for help. We must apparently do something extra fancy."

"She's persistent, isn't she?"

"Yeah. I've already written three pieces and they are queued to be published."

"I've just sent her my second one. Where does Dad know all these people from?"

"His uni days. At least he was studying with people more his age and gender than me. Oh, well, I can anyway use the contacts occassionally, I collected a bunch of cards..."

"Do you have yours?"

Mina rolled her eyes.

"Dad ordered me two packages, one for the estate stuff and one for the company stuff. The estate ones even have a vague suggestion of a coat of arms."

"Whoa. I want one like this, too...!"

"When you are employed as part of Pemberley head staff, you can. Now... let's go tulip shopping?"

In the end, Mina bought a few bags of several different types of tulips, got the invoice she needed to transport them and made initial order for a bunch of different kinds, not only the parrot lines.

"We need some more traditional ones, and maybe some monochromes," she explained. "Just to make sure we have several options covered."

"Reasonable. How is this working out this year?"

"I have a whole team of students lined up with exact instructions who, where and how. But what comes out of it... We'll see in the spring."

They left the precious cargo at the flat and decided to look for some food. Rose had a bright idea, immediately.

"A kapsalon?" Mina asked suspiciuously, prodding the melted cheese. "What is this abomination of science?"

"Kebap meat, fries, veggies and cheese. And sauces."

"It looks like an escapee from a mad scientist's lab."

"Just try it?"

Mina declared the dish to be edible, but nothing she was going to revisit any time soon, no more than chips in nut sauce or mayo.

"It's terribly greasy," she said, pushing away the container. "We need to walk it off."

They did. A walk all over the city took them to some pretty random places and, as the evening fell, the lights were coming up over the canals, making the whole place look like some fairytale town.

"Now I'm looking at the decorations and thinking about home," Rose sighed as they sat on a bench. "How to make the very very best impression."

"Some good business contacts apparently aren't that good for us."

"Eh. It will be an interesting experience."

"Let's just make sure we survive it intact."

####

_November_

####

The moment Halloween was off the list of things to do (with Alex insisting he needed "a true real sword" for his pirate ensemble) and the first frosts started making the mornings noticeably chilly, the ground works moved from "greenery" and regular winter preparations to general cleaning and organising. The estate crews knew what was coming, in the form of the infestation of photographers and reporters, there were of course still ongoing works (now in the less visited western wing of the house), the work on the stables was barely finished in time and everyone was of an opinion that Miss Darcy had been apparently keeping a spare triplet girl in some storage, because she seemed to be everywhere.

Mina herself was living on hastily scarfed-down food, any kind of nap she could find, Teddy's calls and a strenous decision not to let some stupid reporter terrorise them. There would be no overblown preparation, nothing more than normal decoration of the grounds, just... cleaner. And earlier.

One of the ground crews had just brought in a small wagon of last Granny Smiths from the orchard and they were carrying the cases into the side storage by the press to secure them until the following week, when it would be their turn to be turned into juice.

"Miss Mina! Good morning!"

"Master Faber. Everything all right?"

"Sure is, sure is. Just nippy today, that's all. Ooh, these are looking good."

"Take a box or two, if you like them. This year was overwhelming. Second week of November and we are still picking the last fruit..."

"Wife says the same. She's cursing our garden, and her parents are in the same situation. There is way too much quince this year for our needs."

"Quince, you say... How much is too much?"

"Still enough on the trees to go to waste," he sighed. "It's not a good thing to watch so much fruit just..."

"Well, definitely. But..." she scrolled to where she had Derek's Crew (which became something much more stable over the years, while maintaining the model of hiring mostly students). "What would your wife say if I offered our contractors to pick the fruit and to buy them, for a reasonable fee? The orchard crews are free next week, but I still have them booked. I was considering some other tasks, but they can be postponed, while we take the quince off your hands. This way you don't have the feeling of wasting the fruit, we have a full week for the crews and I get something new for the preserves for this year. Quince if pretty tart, this could be an enhancement... Nevermind. You talk to your wife, I talk to the crew and we'll get it done. Is it only the quince?"

"Some last pears, too, but not enough to even run through the press."

"No matter. We can pick and store them and add them to the general pot for mixed juice, if we can't find a better use for them. Still, they won't go to waste. Actually... Do you have neighbours that are in a similar situation?"

"Sure. There is enough quince this year to feed everyone three times over, if we could eat that much quince. Pears went wild, same with latest plums. Some are already drying on the trees..."

"And would they be willing to part with these? I would buy the overflow for market prices, if it's picked and was stored properly, and anything off the trees for... Let's see... Half the price. Anyone who wants to get this fruit off the trees and can't deal with it, tell them to install this app..."

She walked Jacob Faber through the process of registering the account and adding fruit to be picked up to his profile.

"And anyone who wants, they just need to register the same, put their exact address and list the fruit. If they don't know how much they have, just tell them to eyeball it and mark 'still on the tree' and pick the service they need, either just plain pick up of the fruit or also the crew to collect it. And they can mark if they want to sell it and stop thinking about it, or if they want to pay for juice pressing. Pressing only works over certain amounts of fruit, so these are also marked in the app..."

####

####

_December_

####

The magazine people came and went in November, but the decorations were left, secured, waiting for the actual holiday to roll around. Rose was happy with the effect she had seen on the photos, but witnessing it in the full real life glory was even more wonderful.

The main house was polished clean and there were heavenly smells coming from downstairs, from the old kitchens.

"Put your bag somewhere safe and let's see what's on the stove."

"Rose!"

Mina was on her in seconds.

"Come on! All the aunts are here, and most of the cousins... because, can you imagine, Jackie has been invited for a family celebration with a family of her _friend_. But everyone else is already here, and there is a huge pot of something dangerously spicy that uncle Ted is not allowing anyone to mess with, and like a heap of baked potatoes, and another of green beans salad, so... Come on in, come on...!"

The house was somehow more roomy than Rose remembered it. Or maybe the refreshing and renovation made it seem brighter and more open, taking off the patina of ages from the plaster and leaving it snowy white, cream and stone grey, instead of suspiciously grimy and tired in the most used sections. They entered through the side door, since the main were way too heavy and still in repair anyway, so they were just next to the kitchen and the dining room was straight ahead.

"What's going on?" André took off his coat and added it to the cloak room. "Why the to-do?"

"The men decided that this year everything will be done by them. So it's Dad overseeing the vegetable front, uncle Ted doing big pot cooking, uncle Charles dealing with sweets and Evan apparently is a whiz at dealing with poultry. Uncle Richard is claiming he can't really boil water for tea, but it seems Evan found something for him to do, considering Betty here," Rose picked the little giggling escapee up, "is running free. Where are your dads, kiddo?"

"Papa is shouting at dad to stop being a pest and a leech and start pulling his own weigth."

"And you?"

"I wanted to see the big tree and check for presents!"

Uncle Richard's and Evan's adopted eight year old was maybe not as cute as a button, but she came close. She was also smart, mouthy and the apple of her fathers' eyes, so...

"Betty! Where are you!"

"I have her, uncle Richard!"

"Geez, kid. Way to scare your old man... Come on. We apparently need to at least wash the dishes. I'm pressing you into service, private. Come on, chop chop, these dishes won't wash themselves..."

####

Christmas Eve was quiet and calm, and everyone seemed relaxed and...

No, Mina was morose.

Because this year Teddy was stuck at his grandma's and they couldn't even talk...

"...zoology? How nice. And what are your plans?"

Uh-oh. Aunt Jane in a predatory conversation mode.

"Don't let them interrogate you, André," Mina suddenly sided up with him. "They are looking for weaknesses."

Aunt Kitty scowled at them.

"You, missy, are avoiding having your boy grilled, but that doesn't mean you can spoil our fun."

"M-hm. I'm avoiding having Teddy grilled by the expedient of not seeing him for more than a week. I sure win in this case. Like, I mean, it would be a total torture to have him here for most of the time, if I'd have to allow you to ask him some stupid questions. Obviously, the result is so much more favourable for me this way!"

She jumped up and stormed away, leaving the aunts gaping at her back.

"What bit _her_?" Aunt Lydia appeared suddenly from the side room. "What did you say to Mina, Kitty?"

"Just... made a joke that her boyfriend isn't here..."

Aunt Lydia sighed. Painfully.

"Like seriously. Delly was here for the November tomfoolery with the decorations, because Mina invited her to get some nice photos of the grounds for her portfolio and she told me... what? I talk to my kid, OK?"

André leaned on Rose's shoulder, watching the elder generation as they turned towards Aunt Lydia.

"Lyds?"

"Teddy's been stuck on the base for the last three months. No leave, no visiting, just training, whole autumn. He just got two days to move after he was done with his thesis and... What? Don't tell me you didn't know he has already finished the university... Mina got a good one here. Anyway. Buzz off. She just had him for half a day and then the family kidnapped him to grandma's, and the weather is so bad that they don't want to risk driving for a total of what, nearly a hundred kilometers, just for a date which they can't even spend outside. Which is terribly reasonable of them, but also, quite annoying, I'd assume."

"And Teddy's parents are still not renconciled with his choices," Mom added. "I don't want to cause strife, Mina doesn't want to cause strife and Teddy definitely doesn't either, so... My baby is feeling the results. Where is she?"

"In the kitchen," Delly provided. "Who made Mina cry? She's sobbing into shortbread crust and I don't think it's a good idea."

Rose relaxed slowly, as Aunt Kitty picked herself up finally and went downstairs.

"You OK?" she whispered to André the moment they were alone.

"Mostly. Did I tell you I absolutely adore your sister and I'm scared to death of your aunts?"

"Don't worry, they don't bite."

"I can deal with biting. I do it on an everyday basis at the clinic..."

####

They curled up on her bed and waited in the darkness for the New Year to come.

"You don't want to join the others, downstairs?" Mina asked finally.

"Nah. I just got here and I need my dose of contact with my loveliest in the world fiancee."

"Flatterer."

"You love me anyway."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

####

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A disclaimer: It was brought to my attention that the probability of a standard couple that has been together for quite some time to not have sex is low. I admit, it probably is. However, they do exist and, in this case, I saw Mina as the one potentially uncomfortable with the idea of beginning too early. And Teddy is a kind, proper, good man. Who actually does respect her, unlike many others who would not agree with her choices.
> 
> And yes, I know situations like this in real life.


	4. Year Four and Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another year and a half in lives of my darling OCs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting closer to the end of my story.  
> Will post the other two soon (they were written for the last year, but were waiting for this to be finished).

####

January

####

There was the smell of wetness in the air, the kind of feeling of a chill that isn't frost anymore but is still quite unpleasant and annoying.

Adele found a corner of the main house that was a bit out of the wind and shook out a cigarette.

"These things are bad for ya, missy," said a kind voice. One of the estate workers? Someone from the 'Crew'? She wasn't sure.

"Yeah, still better than eating my stress," she mumbled. "Tried that in high school, doesn't end well. Or prettily."

"Well, your choice. Just don't put it out in the flowerbed, or I will tattle. Miss Mina wouldn't be happy."

"I'm not suicidal, you know. She may be half a head shorter, but I won't risk her wrath like that."

"That's good to hear, since I would be honour-bound to help her get rid of the evidence," the man smiled widely. "And if you put the butts in the compost, the head gardener will be merciless, so make sure to drop them in the correct bin."

"Will do. Better not to annoy a person who works with a shovel on a daily basis."

They stood there in silence, for a breath or two.

"Actually..." he trailed off. "Can I bum one off you?"

She rolled her eyes and handed him the pack and her lighter.

"So... You were the one that did the photos, after the big-headed magazine people were gone?"

"Yeah. Mina said that since all that work was already done and everything was lighted up, I should come and add this or that to my portfolio. I'm writing a piece about the environmental impact of obsessive decorations that some places display, and Pemberley is serving as a counter-example, showing how this can be done in a sustainable and clean way."

"Some estates are covered with heaps of mess after the season," he agreed. "We do work for the Darcys and some other places in the neighbourhood, and Mister Darcy runs the tightest ship, when it comes to littering, wasteful packaging and so on. Could give you an address or two if you wish of pretty abysmal examples. Not a trade secret or anything, you will see garbage containers plainly in front of them, full of plastic and foil... And it's not any of our customers since we have a rule about ensuring as much reusability as possible."

"That would be... great. Perfect."

She put the cigarette in her left hand and extended her right for a handshake.

"Adele Bennet, nice to meet you."

"Derek Moore. Likewise."

####

The ride back to the base was long and would have been much more depressing, if not for the fact that Mina had not just dropped him at the station - but joined him on the train.

"Starlight?"

She nestled closer to him and sighed.

"I don't have anything to do this week, Dad told me to take a few days off and just... Do whatever. So, here I am."

"Mhm."

He hid his face in her hair, breathing her in.

"And I can see people watching us," she whispered. "There is a lady a few seats across from us who keeps peeping from over her paper and checking on us, with these little angry eyes."

"She might be disapproving of the military."

"Or disapproving of the public displays of affection..."

"Whatever. Display away."

She even took the bus up to the base with him and they sat in silence, tightly wrapped around each other, until the gate slowly appeared in the side window.

"The bus takes twenty minutes to get to the end of the line, and come back," he said as they exited.

"So, we have twenty minutes more."

He kissed her, maybe a bit too possessively, since she looked at him with wide eyes when he let her go.

"It has to last me another three months," he whispered, feeling his throat closing on the statement. "We don't get another leave until the intensive training is done, and then we'll get our assignments for the second and third quarter. I'll know by the first of April where I'm going to be stationed, and I'll let you know, but..."

She sniffed, obviously trying to hold her tears.

"Yeah. OK. Call me... every other day, OK? So that I know you are fine."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Come here. Hold me for a moment."

She was tiny, soft, and so breakable. And so tough.

"I've been talking to Evan," she said finally, her voice shaky. "He says being a military spouse sucks even more when one is a civilian, but... Well. He's been pretty supportive. Nobody else in the family has a comparable exp..."

He dove in for another kiss.

The bus was coming, and his girl was falling apart. He had to ensure she knew he had faith in her.

"Love you, Starlight."

"Love you too," she mumbled into his chest. "And I hate the fact that it's so bloody far."

"Get on the bus, Miss Darcy, or you will be late for your train. And text me once you are back home!"

She pulled him down for another kiss.

####

February

####

Rose was stuck in Amsterdam, up to her ears in her latest project, Mom was delivering online lessons to the latest batch of evening students, Alex was at an all-day dance workshop and Dad had locked himself in what used to be Mrs Reynolds' room and had been converted into a study. And was, judging from the noise coming, typing stuff. On an actual, honest to God typewriter.

And not even the one that Mom gave him all these years before. No, Dad had started _collecting_ these things, fixing the broken ones, and adjusting the slightly wonky specimens, treating this as a hobby to relax at between the estate business and the business-business.

Mina definitely preferred a soft click computer keyboard over the monstrosities that had to be punched in order to make them cooperate.

It was Saturday afternoon and she had nothing to do.

Baking didn't sound like fun at just that moment. Neither did cooking or any other chore-like pursuit. Piano would be good, but she didn't have the energy to deal with it...

She yawned. Stretched.

Mm. Teddy was probably still attending a training or a meeting or whatever, even on a Saturday...

Totally nothing to do.

Her mobile buzzed on the table.

Unknown number.

Not good.

"Mina Darcy."

"Ms Darcy, we need you at the manor house. There is a woman here, making a fuss. We've already called the police, but they are asking for someone from the owner family to be present, since she is claiming she used to live here."

_What the hell..._

####

Having spent an entire week on securing a court order against Anne's intrusion into Pemberley (or any property linked to the estate), Mina was more than ready to just shut off her phone and tell the rest of the world to go away and die. Dad seemed even more tired, since he had to testify regarding the whole letter mess and drag out all the family secrets into the open, so they quietly decided to take a week off and took Mom and Alex for a small trip to the seaside cottage. Alex had a school break anyway, so it was fortuitous, and Mom only had to deliver one lecture over the internet at some point.

Mina did break down a bit, thinking about Teddy and how they had spent a week there and how unfair it was that he was stuck...

"Kitten? I was doing the laundry and look what I found."

Teddy's flannel shirt!

Freshly laundered and smelling of the fabric softener Mom used, but still.

She curled up in "her" room and took out her phone to take a selfie.

_To: Teddy_

_I have someone to keep me company at the cottage._

_< img00192.jpg>_

She only managed to take her glasses off and splash some water on her face when her phone buzzed.

"Hi, love."

"I see you're cheating on me with some plaid-patterned blackguard."

"Since you're not around and he was nice and cuddly..."

"Faithless, fickle woman."

"Mhm. Totally. Flighty, immature and easily tempted by some soft flannel."

"How will I survive. Betrayed by my beloved and my once-favourite shirt."

"Just get through that training and be home for Easter, I'll see if my brief affair with your shirt is finished by then."

"I'm so not getting that shirt back, right?"

"Teddy..."

"Yeah?"

"Should I remind you who had _left_ that shirt here, when we were here the last time...?"

"Well. You seemed so attached to it, I just didn't have the conscience to deprive you of its company. But I didn't expect you to get _that_ attached...!"

"You may negotiate with it for my time, but until I see you..."

Teddy sighed.

"OK. I'll have to persevere and then get rid of the dastardly rival in a fashion that will make it disappear forever."

"First you'll have to find it."

"Well... Just leave it at the cottage and we'll get back to the topic once we visit?"

#

####

March

####

"And, once we remove the last of the sheeting from the windows, the ground floor will be ready for official reopening-- Excuse me-- Darcy speaking?"

"Hi, Mini-girl. Um."

"Uncle Richard. What-- What happened?"

_Please, please, please..._

"First, I have to say, I had nothing to do with-- Evan, lay off the paper! Seriously, he just swatted me with The Guardian and Betty is laughing at me. Anyway, I didn't intervene, OK? They just-- They assigned him."

"Wh--hhell. I thought the orders were supposed to be given next week."

"Yes, but the bases received their lists today. So. I got ours, as the base commander, and someone is being merciful, I got mostly local boys."

"So, Teddy will be--"

"Twenty miles from home. You are welcome to drop by any time."

####

"We got our assignments," he breathed the moment she picked up the phone. "Starlight, who... is there a chance..."

"No, no, no. Uncle Richard swears he had nothing to do with it. Says he got mostly local people, so maybe it's just someone in the assignment office, or whatever it is called, that decided to put you back in Derbyshire."

"But... But, Starlight... I expected something like, well, again half a day from home, and I was psyching myself up to it and..."

"And now all this preparation is wasted. Poor Teddy. How will you survive being so close to home."

"Well," he coughed. "I think I have some ideas, but then, that would totally depend on what my lovely fiancée has planned for the next half-year."

"I think I might pencil in some trips to the local military base."

"And would you be amenable to taking a walk or two with some uniformed personnel?"

"I will definitely be trying to drag Uncle Richard out of his office, if I can."

"You little tease..."

"You haven't seen anything yet, Mister. Now, how much time off will you have before you have to move? Do you need any assistance actually moving?"

A beat of silence ensued.

"A week before I'm supposed to report to the new base, so like twenty second of March... What do you mean by 'assistance'?"

"I mean, you have collected a lot of bigger and smaller possessions, in storage and in your room and whatever. You are no longer just able to pack it up in one duffle and a backpack. So. Would you like your lovely, self-sufficient fiancée to drive over and pick you up in style, including whatever you've managed to accumulate in the flat before?"

"But, Mina, that's actually... Quite a lot of stuff, I'm afraid."

"And what were you going to do with it?"

He cleared his throat.

"Mostly leave for the charity shop, apart from my personal things, and, well... Your blanket."

"Change of plans then. You can definitely give stuff to the charity shop, if they'll take it, but only the things you are actually not going to use, because... I am... right now... Using my prerogative... Yep, done."

"Mina...!?"

"Taken the van from the company fleet for three days, personal purposes. Which means I have to buy petrol with my own money and be triple careful on my way..."

"But you can't drive a van all the way here..."

"I will have you know, Mister Strickland, that while you have been away, having fun in the Army, your fiancée had to take care of her family estate, including, but not limited to, learning how to drive a bloody delivery van, operate a tail lift and a dolly truck."

"Don't you have actual estate staff around to do these things? I mean... Starlight. You shouldn't be straining yourself like this."

"Have I mispronounced 'dolly truck'?"

He sighed.

"But you will leave all the actual loading to me? And I insist on driving at least half of the time on our way back."

"I will not try to embarrass you in front of your unit, yes. I will drive over, open the van back, lower the lift, and allow you to do all the actual manual work. I can also marvel over your biceps, if that makes it better... Oooh, Teddy, your arms look _sooo stroooong...!_ "

She only heard him sputtering and coughing after that.

####

Since the long drive wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing, she added one day and was in town way in advance, in order to get some rest and be presentable for the final parade - reduced as it was by the hurry in which the classes were churned out - and on time when she picked Teddy up.

Still, it was worth it.

_Charity shop. No way. He's not giving away his drawing table or anything he had saved for so carefully. Although it's a good thing he keeps his bike back at home, not sure how we would have dealt with **that**... At least I can hope this will all be loaded quickly._

And, in true Teddy fashion, it all was done very efficiently. He had his things packed and his storage container contents carefully prepared in the area designated as a loading bay. Some cadets were there being picked up by their parents or partners, some were just loading their stuff into their own or hired cars, so everyone was more or less in a similar situation and the newly minted junior officers were jokingly pointing out everyone else's weird luggage or bad packing methods.

Senior personnel were simply trying to make sure nobody got trampled in the crowd.

"Strickland! That your folks?"

"Fiancée, sir. My parents..."

...had enough problems with Reese and her sudden attacks of teenage angst and rebellion. And what with a potential surge of yet another coronavirus being bandied about (and Teddy's Dad being an "essential" person in his company and what not), he, like many others, was left to fend for himself on the final days on the base. The Army provided basic transport mostly, and some had made use of it, in order to send their possessions, but some, like Teddy, had accumulated _a lot_ , despite not really trying.

But he wouldn't have to discard them or try to organise this by himself (and on a budget), since Mina was there, representing all the family that could not be present, in her most business-like-yet-practical getup of loose slacks and company jacket. She jumped down to the concrete paving and checked the back of the van for space.

"Come on, Theodore. Bring over yourmmmph... Teddy!"

"Hi, Starlight."

She bit her lip, noticing people staring with little smiles at the PDA in the loading line.

"Hi, Teddy. Are you now going to be all manly, commanding and obviously possessive?"

"I can consider that request... Still, first we have a job to do. Or rather, I have a job to do."

She rolled her eyes and pulled him down for another kiss.

"Now, go, and I will be very, very obvious about ogling you."

He _did_ blush at that, actually.

Still, he also very quickly stripped down to his undershirt (which seemed to be a theme for the guys that were being picked up by their partners) and dropped his jacket on the driver's seat.

"Come on, Starlight, let's get this lift down. We have a half-hour slot before the next guy will be moving his bags here."

#

####

April

####

Easter was the first weekend after Teddy moved to his new-old base, so, like the entire group, he only got the leave on Friday afternoon. Still, there was someone waiting for him in front of the gate, as he was planning to walk to the bus stop.

"Uncle Richard called you might be needing a lift home," she said simply. "This will give us an additional hour of us-time, and considering your grandma is visiting, I'd say that's the most we're going to get. Unless you take to sneaking out early in the morning..."

"Considering how crowded it's going to be, I actually might."

Mina had taken the Skoda, not her Mini, so he had reasonable leg space to stretch and enough place on the backseat to drop his weekend bag, but it required a bit more focus so, just like on the drive home with the van, he took his time watching her in silence.

"We could make it two more hours," he suggested as they waited on a red light. "I bet there is a movie we could easily find to watch at this hour, and my parents aren't really expecting me to show up earlier than around ten."

"Are you suggesting we make a little detour?"

"Maybe even not so little. Chesterfield?"

"Or maybe we could skip cinema and just... drive around a bit?"

"Or maybe we could skip driving and park somewhere and talk?"

"That sounds ominous."

He reached out and squeezed her fingers.

"I just need some more time with you. That week of leave was not enough."

She glanced at him suspiciously, but drove on, until they came upon a small, empty parking lot.

He pulled her as close as the seats allowed them and closed his eyes, hiding his face in her hair.

"I've really, really missed this," he sighed. "And I'm going to miss it every time I'll be away. I need to prepare myself for this. I thought I was prepared, but..."

She pressed closer.

"I've been talking to Evan. He says that even though he lives with Uncle Richard and they see each other every day, he's still... afraid for him. Each and every day, too. And he says they will help. If I need them."

He nodded silently.

It was good to know that.

#

####

May

####

Rose was jubilant and excited.

Correction.

Rose _had been_ jubilant and excited.

Finishing the entire degree program a _year_ in advance? It was a reason enough to be jubilant.

Now she was scared and angry.

Specifically, since the moment someone shouted that there had been a pile-up on the motorway from Rotterdam and that there was a British driver involved.

Someone made a derisive comment about bad driving habits and people unable to work out a roundabout.

Nobody was watching her as she tried to browse quickly enough to see the car - which one would they have taken? Did Mom take the time off? Please no. Rose _had wanted_ her to be there, but she didn't want it anymore. Or Alex. Or Dad, or Mina, or André.

An hour ago, she had been wishing them to hurry up.

Now she was praying they had been late for the ferry.

There were wet marks on her screen where she was trying to find a good photo - but it wasn't raining...

No, she was crying.

Honest to God crying in a public place, in plain view of everyone else. All these people gathered for the graduation ceremony, all these parents and sponsors and professors.

She didn't give a flying fuck about them.

The phone vibrated annoyingly, but she couldn't see the screen -- it was all blurry -- no, it was her sight that was blurry -- she was tearing up, and...

She swiped to accept, hoping, very much hoping.

"Rose?"

"Minnie..." she sniffed. "Minnie, are you OK?"

"We are all fine, just... I'm so sorry, Rose, but we aren't going to be there in time. There is like a gigantic jam on the highway, no idea what is in front of us, but..."

"There's a pileup of twenty cars," she managed to choke out. "One of them was British, and I was, I was worried, and..."

Mina gasped.

"You thought it was _us_ somewhere in this? Oh sh... sugar. Yeah. No, definitely. We're all fine. Just really bored and some of us need to pee."

Alex's voice protested against something in the background.

"Anyway, no. No, we're good. Why didn't you call me?"

Rose took a shuddering breath.

"I was... scared? Wanted to find a photo from the site first, and..."

"I wish I was there right now for you," her sister whispered. "Now, we're still thirty kilometres out, but that could take hours."

"Just be here, OK? We can go to that dinner at whatever time you guys arrive. I don't need you here fast, I need you here alive. Please."

"We will do our best."

"Mina. That's not something you should joke about...!"

"Sorry. We will be there. Check-in in twenty minutes?"

"I'll be waiting."

#

She hugged the air out of all of them that afternoon, once they managed to get to the city finally, and, the moment they arrived at the apartment Dad had rented, she fell asleep wrapped possessively around André. In the middle of the night, however, she woke up, left him to sleep quietly alone, and found Mina sitting on the sofa under a blanket, watching some very random show.

They ended up cuddling on that sofa, with Rose getting wrapped in another blanket and Mina holding onto her quietly.

"That sucked," she mumbled.

"Yeah."

"I don't remember ever being so scared."

Mina just squeezed her harder.

"I can't imagine how you can be so brave."

She felt her sister's breathing stutter, just a bit.

"What do you mean?"

Rose turned around in her arms, coming nose to nose with her mirror reflection.

"I was standing there, on the yard, thinking how all of you might be in the middle of that pileup, and then you weren't, but then I saw you texting Teddy and..."

Mina chewed on her lip.

"Aren't you scared for him?"

And now Mina was shaking.

"I am," she finally whispered. "I'm scared even now, when he is with Uncle Richard and safe and close to home. I know that nothing should happen to him on the base, because they aren't doing anything dangerous, but..." she just shivered in silence for a moment. "I'm worried."

Rose hugged her even closer, listening to the way her twin's heart fluttered - faster than her own, always a bit quicker, a bit more nervous, a bit more delicate.

She wrapped herself around Mina and held her for the rest of the night, as they sat in front of the mindlessly flickering screen.

#

####

June

####

Teddy's birthday was celebrated in a cafe close to the base, since he couldn't get an additional day off, which meant close interaction with his parents and Reese. While Reese had shed her hero-worship tendencies and was now treating Mina as a normal human being, Teddy's mother was still not reconciled with how they went about doing things.

_How long can she keep being that bitter about this? Doesn't she see she is hurting Teddy? Why does she feel I'm somehow bad for Teddy? I can't..._

She took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face.

She'd talk to Reese and maybe, working together, they'd be able to demolish that wall of parental disapproval.

That is, if Mom wouldn't strangle Teddy's mother first. She was definitely plotting to.

Rose was conspicuously absent for the last twenty minutes, ever since she had received a call from André, and Alex was displaying increasing symptoms of being bored out of his skull, as the table space he could claim as his was not good enough to draw.

She glanced around the open-air seating area and found a secluded spot on a stone bench in the corner.

"I need to take care of Alex," she whispered.

"He looks ready to explode or melt down," Teddy agreed. "What can I help you with?"

She pecked him on the cheek.

"We'll just sit there in the corner so he could draw. It will calm him down a bit."

And it did. It also worked well on Mina's nerves, watching Alex quietly draw an apple, a pear and a plum, carefully shading them and adding all the minute details they needed.

"How are you doing this? I could never shade anything, not in a million years."

A pair of blue eyes glanced at her.

"Wanna see?"

"Sure. I know people _do_ it; I just never was taught _how_."

"Our teacher shows us. See."

And he showed her, step by step, how to draw light lines from both sides, and how to make them meet in the middle, to overlap a bit.

"This is a great gradient technique," Teddy provided suddenly from her other side. "Very nice blending there."

"T'you."

"Some people in my year would not have done it as nicely."

Alex just blinked.

He was still getting used to Teddy, again after quite a long break, so he was shy. But it was getting better.

She bowed her head over her brother's shoulder and watched as he smeared one colour with the other carefully, lightly.

"These are the new pencils Rose bought when we were in Amsterdam for her diploma?"

"M-hm. Nice."

"They are very nice indeed. Did you see they all have names of the colours stamped on them, in Italian?"

The look Alex shot her could _only_ be described as "duh".

"Verde, rosso, giallo scuro, bianco, nero..."

He was reciting the colours easily, without even pausing, and without actually checking the names on the pencils themselves.

She saw Teddy raising an eyebrow at the display.

"Mom is fluent, and Alex is learning much quicker than I ever did. So, how is brown?"

"Marrone."

The tone of Alex's voice was saying "I'm humouring you now", in a very blatant way.

"And grey?"

"Grigio."

Teddy leaned closer, watching as Alex added stems and leaves - botanically correct, to boot - to all of the fruits.

#

####

July

####

She supposed she should be thankful that the threat of yet another virus was squashed firmly by a massive movement on the side of big pharmaceutical companies, but right at that moment she was wishing for some isolation rules she could apply, because there were visitors at the door, asking for a chance to tour the gardens, and she had no wish to deal with them. Absolutely none.

But she was a Darcy.

So she had to.

So she picked herself up, brushed her hair into a high knot, brushed off her jacket and strode to the entrance, already playing the shortest possible welcoming speech in her head _and_ considering hiring someone that would just deal with cases like this. For the time being, it was her.

She pulled the large door open with a swift jerk and strode down the imposing (freshly renovated) entrance staircase.

"Welcome to Pemberley," she started, "I was informed you wished to see the gardens. We do not..."

"Bennet."

"Darcy," she corrected mildly, squinting at the guests. "And you are?"

The woman's face fell, just a bit.

"I'm Christine? You know, London? Uhm. Primary school?"

Mina blinked.

"...I was kind of a jerk to you...?"

_Ah._

"Yeah, well," Mina shrugged. "You seem to have gotten over it. Or not?"

The woman - girl - grimaced.

"I hope so, at least. So... Kind of weird to meet like this? What are you even doing here...?"

Mina patted the bannister, run her hand down the smooth marble.

"I manage the estate, more or less. Overseeing the repairs, dealing with National Trust, this sort of thing."

"But..."

Christine looked like a fish, opening her mouth, and closing it again.

Mina was _not_ going to forgive and forget. She wasn't bitter about it anymore - she had a much better life now, with her family, and Teddy and everyone, but she wasn't willing to just let go, because someone had an attack of conscience.

She would admit she was a bit of a vengeful little brat. Occasionally. When provoked.

Christine might have had a change of heart, but that didn't mean stuff she had said -- at the Christmas Fair, too! -- hadn't been hurtful. And Mina was allowed a little fun, wasn't she?

She so was.

After all, it was her home, her _domain_.

Her Pemberley.

"So, if we take this lane, you will see the typical English Garden section that we are keeping up to the landscaping standards according to the National Trust policies. Once we pass through this gate, however, I will show you the experimental bulb garden managed by my sister. It's mostly tulips when until May, but now it's irises and lilies... We're still working out whether they conflict or work together well. Far right, you can see the blackberries, which are gaining more ground each year, so we try to limit them a bit, and down this side is the orchard..."

"Ben... Mina."

She glanced at Christine, who was watching her with wide eyes.

"Yes? Anything unclear?"

"I... Why are you here? I mean... You just disappeared, and the headmistress was kind of snipy about it, and then there was gossip, but nobody really knew anything... And then you showed up, on that fair..."

"With my twin sister. Yes. Not sure what the school was trying to gain by messing up with my school record, considering I had been correctly transferred to Lambton in October, but our local headmaster had me on the rolls as local, so, whatever."

"And... why here?"

Mina just smiled and turned towards the other people in the group.

"The redcurrant bushes are in season now, so you can have a look and taste. And we have some raised beds of strawberries that are coming along nicely."

"We can just pick some...?" one of them ventured.

"Sure. Just don't clear the entire row!"

She turned back to Christine once they left.

"So?"

Her old classmate gestured around helplessly.

"What... why...?"

She decided to be merciful.

"I live here. Well, used to live in the old house, now we live up there, over the raise, in the new one... What?"

"You mean, here-here? In Pemberley?"

Mina rolled her eyes.

"Do you even know who the owner of this estate is?"

Christine bit her lip.

"A, well, a Mr Darcy, I think...?"

"And what name did I introduce myself with...?"

Christine did her fish impression again.

"B-but... You..."

"Yeah. My father owns all of this. Basically, from where we are standing, all you can see is our family land."

"But I can see some parts of Lambton, too...?"

"Well, maybe the church grounds don't belong to Pemberley."

"You're serious."

"Like taxes."

"And you..."

"Manage the estate. For my father."

"And he..."

"Owns a building company."

Christine covered her mouth for a moment. Looked around.

Mina had it in her heart to be magnanimous. Christine hadn't been the worst in the class, just an average pest. If everyone teased, she did. If everyone laid off, she did.

"Yeah. Go, have a look. Take some photos. The flowers are pretty. My sister takes care of them."

"Your..."

It was apparently not Christine's day for finishing sentences.

"My twin sister, the one you saw in London, yes. I think you can google us, I'm pretty sure there were some tabloid articles about us, ever since I started working with Dad. So. Anything else?"

Christine's lips quivered.

"I'm meeting some of the girls from our class next week. Do I have your permission to hit them with an update about you and then report back on the faces they'll make?"

#

####

August

####

Rose was sweaty, smelly, and _happy_. Ever since the attack of nerves she had had in Amsterdam, she felt compelled to be _close_ to one of her people. At least it was summer, so Alex was mostly at home, and she happily served as his driver when he needed to get to the dance classes, the pottery workshop or to the pool, thus fulfilling her own need to be in constant contact, while not being a pest towards the others.

Working in the gardens with Mina was also great and adding Mom (whenever it was a bee-safe task) and Alex to the mix just made it so much better.

The gardens were becoming even better this year, with the constant attention she could give them, and with the knowledge she had gained at the university.

The solar-powered gazebo was in the last stages of being constructed, there were trellis for several different varieties of vining fruit up and already partially covered with the actual plants.

Well. And a while corridor of beans, just for fun. They were easy, not very delicate and gave an enormous crop for small investment.

Also, Alex had a green phase again, so she felt like a hero when she could bring an entire basket of various beans to the kitchen and clean them with him and prepare a meal he would eat all of.

The kiwis didn't really work out, but she wasn't expecting them to. Even with the climate change, Derbyshire was not exactly the good area to grow a moody plant like that, but she had to give it a go. Well, one year, and something else would be planted in their place in 2027. Maybe fava beans.

What she was proud of were the strawberries. Both the ones on the raised beds, that allowed the staff to pick them much more easily, and the ones she had teased into creeping up the small setups, so you could pick them from underneath.

And now she was dressed in thick flannel shirt and picking blackberries. It was either being sweaty like... like a farm animal, or being pricked all over with the thorns. She chose the first option, as it usually resulted in less skin issues.

And she had been at the task for the last three hours, as had Mina, who had put on a much-too-large chequered shirt and joined her in the blackberry patch in the early morning.

"That Teddy's shirt?" she finally asked.

Mina simply rolled her eyes.

"Not like I went to a men's clothing department and chose something too big for me for no reason whatsoever."

"Looks good on you. I mean... Never mind."

Her sister sighed and for a moment hid her face in the fabric.

"When is he leaving?"

Silence dragged as they both picked some more fruit.

"Mid-September," Mina finally said, looking at something in the distance. "They have set the assignments; he's getting his orders next week."

_Shit._

"Will he get any time off?"

"Yeah. Two weeks. We'll have to..."

"Take them off," Rose interrupted her bluntly. "Take these two weeks off. Go to the cottage."

Mina blinked.

"But I though André and you were..."

"We can go anytime. I'll tell him to move the days off to the end of September. Or whatever. Just... Take Teddy there, for a few days."

Mina nodded finally, but Rose could see the whiteness around her lips.

#

####

September

####

Date: 2026-09-27

From: t.strickland@cre.army.mod.uk

To: w.c.darcy@darcyconstruction.co.uk

Subject: Sudan is *hot*

Starlight,

I just have a moment to sit at the computer that has network, and this is a very weak line, so the photos will be very much reduced. I hope they'll give you the general picture.

We've arrived at the base yesterday and there are engineers and various other relief workers from all over the world here. Very mixed group.

No mobile network coverage, I'm afraid, but we have access to a satellite phone, thirty minutes per week each, so we'll have to set up call times, I suppose.

My primary assignment is working with a local guide and discuss the placement of wells with the others in the unit. The guide speaks English, a bit of Italian, a bit of Hindu and quite a lot of what I recognise as Ukrainian curse words. He's been working with the base for several years now and will be helping us to acclimatise ourselves with the local conditions.

We look very weird here, new ones and still in full uniform. Looking at the people who are permanently stationed here, one loses that stiffness to the general harshness of the weather.

Have to go

Love you

T.

  1. Still thinking about the cottage... Did I leave my shirt there again? I mean the new, brown one, not the old green one. I can't find it anywhere.



#

####

October

####

"Happy birthday, Starlight."

He sounded tired.

She stopped herself from saying that.

But he did.

"Hi, Teddy. I thought we were having a call tomorrow...?"

"I might have bought this time from one of the guys. You know, convinced him that my girl's birthday is today, so..."

"Is this why Rose was suddenly so careful about me having my phone with me? Hah. I knew she was plotting!"

"I might have also applied to her for support, yes."

She bit her lip and climbed to sit on one if the walls by the road.

"So... How are you doing?" she asked carefully.

"I'm a bit sunburnt," he admitted. "It's pretty weird, actually. First time ever I managed to get the backs of my ears that red. Never happened before."

"Seriously, you've burned your ears?"

He laughed, then coughed.

"Sorry, it's just dusty like hell here. Anyway, yeah. The base medic is that stern-looking American lady with such a heavy southern accent, and she had things to say about idiot English boys not knowing what the sunlight looks like."

She smiled. It felt good, actually. Not that her birthday had sucked, but it wasn't _fun_.

"Teddy..."

"Love you," he blurted out suddenly. "Oh, Starlight, I miss you so. I can't... I wish..."

"Yeah. Me too."

She bit her lip and stopped the sudden tears before they fell.

"Tell me what it's like today. And take photos. I wish, as my birthday gift, for some proper pictures."

"Will do, milady. Now, let me tell you about that bird I've seen earlier today..."

She sat there, head hanging, listening to him talk, for the next fifteen minutes.

Evan had been right. It all bloody sucked.

#

####

November

####

Mom's forty-fourth birthday was quiet and uneventful. The work in the main house was now limited to the interiors, and well on the way to being done, the roads were repaired after the summer flooding had left them damaged, the storage was full of all things edible from the gardens and Mina's app (Rose didn't bother with the details, as long as the thing worked) had generated enough work for the delivery vans belonging to the estate that everyone, down to the secondary drivers, was feeling quite confident in their ability to weather the winter.

The cake was baked by Mina, with some help from Rose, who had prepared the blackberry preserves and picked the best of the frozen blackberries and raspberries she had stored for that particular purpose in summer.

Now, sitting together, they were watching Mom blow the candles and cut into it carefully.

"This is _decadent_ ," Aunt Jane pronounced. "It's a good thing you don't have birthday more often. We would have gained way too many pounds this way."

"Ah, but they would have been _delightful_ pounds," Uncle Charles sighed.

Rose watched them all from her spot at Dad's side, and worried. Mom was forty-four, Aunt Jane was forty-seven, Uncle Charles forty-eight... But Dad would be turning fifty-two soon.

Fifty-two!

It sounded even worse when she thought how he would be sixty-two by the time Alex started university.

Mom was resisting her age the best, probably. Her hair got some silver seeded through it, but nothing prominent, unlike Dad at the same age.

The silver streaks Dad was sporting at forty had by now changed into all-around salt-and-pepper colouring, which didn't affect how handsome he was, but still, made the difference of eight years between them all that more visible.

She leaned over and rested her head on Dad's shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Nothing. Just... A weird feeling."

"Yeah. We all get them sometimes. When we can find a moment, I need to talk to you about something, just the two of us, OK?"

She felt he heart racing but put on her best smile.

"Sure. Um. Yeah, just let me know when."

####

He watched Rose reading the documents carefully, page after page.

"And this is..." she trailed off. "Everything?"

"In bits and pieces, over the years."

She nodded.

"The main core first?"

He shrugged.

"It's just formalising the current state of affairs."

"And the rest?"

"Over the next ten years."

"Makes sense."

They sat in silence for a moment, as she re-stacked the papers.

"You're not angry?"

He saw her smile, a small thing and maybe rueful.

"Never. It is the best choice. She is the best choice."

"So... You're relieved?"

She nodded slowly.

"I would have never achieved what she had managed to."

#

####

December

####

She managed to let up a bit about sticking to one of them all the time, but still, spending a pleasurable week in André's arms was _so comforting_. Not to mention other things it was. She had a lot of adjectives she could use, but most of them not appropriate for general audience.

Their vacation week was pushed to later and later, until it was a week before Christmas and he had begged him boss to let him go, and they drove over to the seaside cottage, car full of food and all they needed in order not to have to leave the house for an entire week.

"Is Mina OK with you leaving her with all the preparations...?"

"She practically packed my bag and kicked me out of the door. She _actually_ packed all the food herself. There are probably biscuits and a cheesecake somewhere in the boxes. Said we gave them our summer week, so we deserved one now, and she would manage."

"A cheesecake, you say?"

She stretched on the sofa and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"You build the fire before it's too late and too cold, and I'll dig for provisions, OK?"

They had the option to use one of the bedrooms but using the roll-out mattress and camping in front of the fire in the living room had its appeal.

André's semi-permanently tanned skin looked very well in the light of the fireplace, when she pushed him down flat and took what she wanted, with enthusiasm she could not express normally, when they were anywhere near other people.

####

"I'll drop by tomorrow after dinner."

She kissed him lightly.

"I'll be waiting."

He frowned at the snow falling on the hood of her car.

"It's weird. I've been overcooked two days ago at forty, rained on yesterday in London and here it's snowing and what, minus three? Might be the steepest drop of temperature I've experienced in my life."

"Well. You are dressed for the weather at least."

"That I am."

He slipped his leather-clad fingers into her hair carefully and pulled her closer into a kiss.

"Merry Christmas, Starlight."

"You're here, it's enough for me."

"So, I don't need to bring the gifts over? I thought I would not be welcome with open arms if I didn't have some little..."

She leaned closer and her eyes drifted shut under the caress of his large hands on her head and neck.

"Nah. Just be there. I don't care otherwise," she mumbled thickly. "I missed you."

The way he kissed her was at the same time well-known and new, maybe grown. Maybe evolved.

There was no hesitation, and maybe a bit of a demand in his hands, surrounding her head like a precious, but extremely delicate gem, a bit of possessiveness in his lips, and she closed her eyes, just for a moment, trying to imagine what it would be like to...

Maybe not yet now. It didn't feel right yet. But soon.

For the time being, she just melted into Teddy.

#

####

January

####

His brain and body were extremely confused with the changes of temperature happening over such a brief period of time, but his heart was the worst.

He wanted Mina, and that was it. The entire two weeks of leave they were apart for just bare hours - well, and nights. At least officially. Technically.

It was just two nights and they had very innocently fallen asleep on the sofa (first), so he brought Mina upstairs and wanted to leave, but was not allowed to. She had basically wrapped her arms around his waist and fallen asleep like that, using him as an overgrown teddy bear. Hah.

Mrs Darcy woke him up in the morning and smiled at the sight they made - he still in his warm sweatpants and long-sleeved t-shirt, half sitting-up, and Mina wrapped in a comforter, sleeping on him instead of on a pillow.

_"You two OK?" she whispered._

_"Yeah, just, stiff," he mumbled back ruefully. "Mine didn't want to let go."_

_"She missed you. Let's let her sleep. Breakfast in an hour."_

And so it was, simple acceptance. Much more than he was getting at home. Well, much more than he was getting from his mother, and his father's mother. The ladies banded up in an uncertain alliance over the topic, and it was more than annoying.

He pressed his knuckles to his eyes to stave off the feeling of oncoming tears.

"Strickland! You're up next, come on, your turn to show off these muscles of yours!"

He trotted up to where his teammates had been trying to lift a log of local, very dense, wood.

"Teddy, Teddy!" someone chanted, so he spat in his palms, rubbed them together, crouched and grabbed the end of the log. Lifting it slowly and carefully, not to overstretch his back, not to strain his knees, just like they taught them over and over again at the Academy.

_My body is my most important tool. I must take care of it, and it will repay me by working properly in the years to come._

_Just five more inches and I'll be better than the last guy. OK. I can do it. I can. Do it._

He did. He passed the mark made by one of the lieutenants on the board next to the log and considered dropping the heavy weight, but...

He lifted it, maybe not easily, but without much strain, for another two handspans, and held there.

He glanced around, meeting the stupefied expressions on the faces around him.

"That OK?" he asked mildly.

The lieutenant just groaned.

"Now you've gone and set the bar way too high for everyone else, Strickland."

"Sorry, sir," Teddy could only smile crookedly. "It's just me being me."

"I suppose everyone from Derbyshire is hardier than some soft southerners..."

"I wouldn’t claim _that_."

"And yet, you've been talking to me calmly, while still holding that bloody log and not breaking a sweat. OK, give us your max, Strickland, show some effort!"

#

####

February

####

She was cleaning Star after a small, overly muddy walk, when a pair of lips attacked her neck without a warning. She would have shrieked, if not for the smell of André's favourite cologne _and_ Star's soft, welcoming neighing.

"Hey, lover."

"Mm."

"Give me five? I need to make sure she is comfy and warm now."

"Sure. Don't mind me here."

"André!"

He finally let go, pouting, and leaned on the half-wall, watching her check Star's hooves and cover the mare with an additional blanket.

"She's getting on with years, isn't she," she not-asked finally, eyes firmly on the lean, slowly greying side.

André sighed.

"So is Thunder. I was... I was thinking. Would your Dad -- and Mina -- be OK, if I asked for Thunder to be housed here?"

He looked worried when she glanced at him.

"I'm afraid he is not getting adequate care in the stables I'm keeping him in. I mean... It's just a feeling. But stuff seems off."

"And when it's a veterinarian having a feeling about the well-being of his own horse, it's more than just a gentle suggestion that something _is_ off. I'm sure Dad wouldn't mind."

"Very well, I'll ask him and see about the transfer soon. Now, since we are expected at Aunt Maura's in two hours, what do you want to do in the meanwhile?"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Take a shower. This little lady may be as clean as she can, but now _I_ need a wash."

####

"Do you think she will be OK?"

"I can't tell you for sure. I just can't. But she is a Darcy and she will persevere. If it gets worse, she will try to pile up enough work to be too busy to think. You have to make sure she doesn't overdo it."

"Yeah. Lizzy and I are both watching her. Lizzy is forcing her to eat on a regular basis, since she tends to forget."

"Which in turn means that Lizzy is eating properly, which is also a valid concern, since your ladylove seems to be surviving on sunlight and tea alone, at times."

"That's true. It's a complex machine of interdependent sections, cogs and gears, each person slightly manipulating others, while being manipulated in turn."

"Also known as a family."

He snorted. But Richard was right, definitely.

"Apropos family, how is Betty doing?"

That gave Rick a chance to expound a bit about young Betty, who was bossing other children in her classes and had gotten a detention for tangling up with a bully.

"If it was Lambton school, I'd be checking if it wasn't the weird victim/defender chain that we have here, but in her case it seems like just the two of you can't take a kid in and expect her to grow up meek and quiet."

"If she wished to, I would not have tried to force her to change, but Betty is terrifyingly self-sufficient and ever since Evan started teaching self-defence classes in her school..."

William allowed it to wash over him. It was good. The family was fine, poor André's horse was safe and sound in the stable, under Rose's watchful eye, Mina was in her element, choosing the next stage of the great project of renovation... It was just Teddy that was missing.

"...Evan says Mina can always drop by and he's there for a call, too, should she need some support. So. Remind her about it, will you?"

"Sure. Sure. Thank you, Rick."

#

####

March

####

Spring planting was in full swing, Mina was busy from dawn until dusk and even longer, falling asleep wherever she sat down, and Rose was no better. Even though most of the work was being done by the gardeners and orchard staff, both girls were elbow-deep in dirt day after day after day - one trying to work through her worries, and the other faithfully accompanying her sister.

The few times André tried to talk Rose into taking a break, Elizabeth stepped in herself, joining the girls to give Rose a reason to go on a date or at least a meal away from the house, but there was nobody to talk Mina into slowing down.

So they sat in the shed, carefully sowing the tomatoes, and peppers and whatever else Mina had planned, and then went out and cleaned out the blackberry brambles and checked on the bulb flowers, and then back into the shed, to make sure the more needy flowers were correctly put in their containers, to be removed into the bit cement pots by the drive later, and back onto the field...

Mostly in silence, unless they needed a tool the other had nearby.

And then they washed their hands and Mina cuddled into her, as if she was thirteen, not twenty-three, and fell asleep in silence, while Elizabeth brushed her hair back and plaited it into a long braid.

Her baby was hurting and there wasn't much she could do to help her.

#

####

April

####

Date: 2027-04-12

From: w.c.darcy@darcyconstruction.co.uk

To: t.strickland@cre.army.mod.uk

Subject: Congratulations!

I have been informed by a Very Reliable Source that my fiancé has received a promotion... The only question I have is, why do I have to learn these things from Very Reliable Sources, instead of having it directly from you.

Hm?

Uncle Richard just called me to tell me that I'm apparently now engaged to a Lieutenant. Like, full sized.

Wow.

Love you

M

Date: 2027-04-14

From: t.strickland@cre.army.mod.uk

To: w.c.darcy@darcyconstruction.co.uk

Subject: Re: Congratulations!

Starlight,

We've had power supply issues in the camp here, so using the computers for private purposes was restricted.

I'm-- I still didn't process the promotion, I think.

Not sure.

By the way-- what would you think about a September wedding?

I'll be getting a bit of a longer time off at the end of this one.

So maybe?

Let me know what you think

T

Date: 2027-04-15

From: w.c.darcy@darcyconstruction.co.uk

To: t.strickland@cre.army.mod.uk

Subject: Re: Congratulations!

Oh.

A September wedding.

Well, I suppose I could put something together.

A little family party?

M

_"I think a call is more adequate for this kind of conversation."_

"Teddy-- I thought you didn't have the phones yet?"

_"I bartered with one of the guys from the Australian setup, they have satellite phones."_

"B-but--"

_"A little family party, Miss Darcy? Only us, our parents, siblings, cousins and aunts and uncles, which comes up to what, fifty? Sixty people?"_

"Not-- not exactly, but there is a certain amount of risk that yes."

_"OK. I'll be home on a leave at the beginning of June, and then middle of September. If you-- I won't be much help, I know, but if we can press as much as we can into these weeks--"_

"You will end up living with my choices."

_"You know I'd never reject anything you choose. And once the network here is up, I'll be able to help online, if not every day constantly. I have to do some work, after all."_

"All of us do, Mister Strickland. But. You get your ass home in June so we can file the paperwork and then be here by the eighteenth of September, ready to get married."

_"Eight-- why eighteenth?"_

"Because it's a Saturday and I've just filed a provisional request for the Town Hall registration wedding. They do this stuff online these days, you know."

_"Eighteenth of September."_

"Yep."

_"We're getting married. On the eighteenth."_

"Yeah? Teddy, are you OK?"

_"I'm-- I'm just perfect. You're perfect, Starlight. Thank you."_

"Not sure what for, but I'll take it. Anyway. E-mail me when you have all dates confirmed, but--"

_"I will. We have to finish. Love you."_

"Love you too."

#

####

May

####

_April showers bring May flowers._

They did. In spades.

After a lousy March and weepy April, May seemed strangely sunny and jubilant. Mina was getting a bit suspicious, and yet she couldn't but smile when she thought of it. Just one month. One month more and she would be signing the paperwork they needed to submit for the marriage ceremony at the Town Hall.

One month until Teddy came home, and she could have him just to herself for...

She grimaced.

The fly in the ointment.

His parents.

She had given up on getting the approval. As long as _her_ parents were OK with Teddy, she didn't _really_ care, but...

...but she did. For Teddy's sake.

Well, at least Resse was enthusiastic.

She had ambushed Mina at school, when she was picking Alex up one day, and nearly squeezed the life out of her.

_"I'm so happy for the two of you...!"_

_"Wh..."_

_"Teddy called me. I know Mom will be mad and Dad just can't deal with her and grandma nagging him about it, but I don't care. You two deserve the best."_

_Mina smiled, but she knew it was strained._

_"I will get the addresses of all the family and everyone Teddy wants to invite. Thomas will help me, too, since he thinks you are the very best thing for Teddy."_

_"Oh. OK. Thank you. Um. Reese...?"_

_The girl glanced up at her, eyes widening._

_"Do you want to be my bridesmaid?"_

_"W... But... You have Rose?"_

_"I can have more than one bridesmaid, right?"_

_"Yeah, I suppose so... But... Really?"_

_"Unless you'd rather be a flower girl."_

_Reese's eye twitched._

_"Nope. But... Do I have to wear a dress?"_

_The disgust in her voice was palpable._

_"We can work something out. I'm sure there is a perfect way to pull this off without putting you in a frock. And we will ask Aunt Evie to help us with that."_

_"Aunt Evie?"_

_"You'll see. I have a meeting set up with her, lemme send you the appointment..."_

So, Reese and Thomas were all for it. Thomas having been asked to be a best man, while André would serve as a groomsman.

It was slowly coming together, even before they had even technically filed the paperwork.

But hey, at least she didn't have to rent a venue at absurd prices. And she had a place to put everyone up for the night, if needed.

Rose handed her another packet of wildflower seed mix.

"Come on. Let's make this part yellow? Or pink?"

Mina checked the covers of the small paper envelopes.

"Pink by the greenhouse, yellow around the pond."

"And nothing around the house."

"Well, not much. I don't want to risk too many pollinators... But we can use the butterfly-friendly mix, I suppose."

#

####

June

####

"You are so tanned! And-- Is your hair lighter? Teddy, is this a scar?"

"I fell and scratched my cheek, it's nothing. It didn't even require stitches."

(it did, but he wasn't going to tell her _that_ )

She frowned.

"Theodore."

"Mina, I-- I'm--"

"Come on. You're dead on your feet, that's what you are."

"Yeah, I suppose I am."

(he definitely was, having barely slept for two days prior)

"Yours, or mine? Mine will be better, I think. _And_ I have food."

He sighed and leaned into her, closing his eyes, holding her soft-softsoftsoft -- form to his.

_(So good.)_

"Yours. It's quieter and--"

With Rose being at the cottage with André for two weeks, Alex on a school trip (was it this week or the next...?) and her parents firmly in the "you two are adults" category, yes, it was definitely quieter in the Little Pemberley than at his parents' place. What was most important, however, it was the acceptance that they received there. However much it pained Teddy to admit it, they found much more comfort and approval offered to them by the Darcys than by his own parents. Even if Mina's father still occasionally watched him in that heavy, searching manner, it was still better than his mother's continued scepticism.

####

It was a relief to stretch out on Mina's bed, especially since they had brought the food and tea with them upstairs and could now eat and cuddle at the same time. Or rather, have Mina feed him, ordering him to close his eyes and guess what it was that she had prepared.

Who was he to disagree?

He was finally horizontal, after all the hours on the plane and on train, his head in his girl's lap, they had an appointment at the Town Hall in two days to fill in the paperwork--

And he was being fed, piece by piece, fruit that was cool, sweet, and tasting of _home_.

"That's indecent, you know," he kissed her fingers and licked the remnant of the custard, glancing up at her, before dropping his head back to her lap. "Are these strawberries from the new greenhouse?"

"Correct. It has been a great first harvest and we're well-nigh swimming in them. I hope we can get the surplus processed, but for the time being we're just cleaning and freezing them like crazy. As to _indecent_ , that is your birthday feast, so you can afford to be a little, mm, less than strict--"

"My birthday is in a week--"

"Well," he felt her move behind and above him and-- "I thought we could start celebrating it a little ahead of the schedule. In private. Considering we have the house to ourselves today--"

Something soft was dropped to the floor by the bed.

 _That was a bra,_ his brain supplied helpfully. _And her shirt. Uhm._

####

"I was thinking about something interesting and _not_ white, Auntie Evie," Mina huffed, turning the paged of a bridal gown catalogue. "Not a stiff bodice, not a meringue. And not a-- whatever that it."

"Is this a bridal gown or a wedding night apparel?" Reese giggled. "Is she even wearing anything underneath?"

"No, and that's not her actual head, either. See, it's photoshopped. Crudely."

"I'm getting major Princess Langwidere vibes here."

"Just as long as they don't expect people to actually swap their heads--"

"Ladies."

They went back to the catalogue, desperately looking for some kind of inspiration. Mina scoffed at puffy pinkness. Reese sniffed derisively at the next few, tapping her venomously orange Dr Martens against the chair leg in boredom.

"These all look pale and washed out, kinda," she pointed out. "Or they are wearing a ton of makeup and look like Chinese dolls. And I don't know if it's the dresses that make them look half dead, or it's just the way they are posed, but nothing here looks 'Mina'."

"Let's maybe--" Auntie Evie paused, looking around the store. "No, actually. We are going about it all wrong. Gimme that."

She snatched the catalogue from their hands and tossed it to the couch in the corner.

"Wilhelmina, focus now," she ordered. "Close your eyes. Imagine the best ball gown you might ever wish to have. What is it? What colour? Length?"

Mina obeyed the sudden command and--

"Um. Kind of-- dark turquoise maybe? With-- with gold and maybe some floral pattern and--"

"You want an Anna court dress."

"N-no?"

"Teal, plus metallic gold or bronze, plus flowers. An Anna dress."

She opened her eyes and grimaced.

"Well. I mean."

"Babygirl, when I'm done, both Elsa and Anna are going to be sorry they are not you. Disney is going to call me and ask for the design to use in their next movie. Your mother gave me two weeks to put together _her_ wedding dress, you are giving me nearly three _months_. I promise, it's going to be bloody fabulous."

#

####

July

####

"Aren't you jealous she's getting married first?" someone asked.

Rose was quite ready to dismember the next person who opened their mouth in her presence.

"Aren't you worried you might be considered... an old maid?" André laughed in her ear. "How did they call it... ah. On the shelf?"

"Shut up and let's get to Mina. She's looking half-dead by now."

She definitely was. Rose and André surrounded her easily, cutting her away from some random person who just _had to_ weigh in on the wedding organisation and how lovely it was that there would be a proper event and...

(they had no idea, no idea at all)

Mina slumped a bit when they hid in the estate van that had brought the produce to the fair.

"That was a stupid idea," she admitted, leaning on Rose's shoulder. "I should have sent Brian with the cider, but I hoped for a quiet afternoon to do some shopping...! I wanna go home and just lie down and not see any people until mid-September. I feel like someone had just ran me through a clothes-wringer...!"

"Yeah, like, no. Take a painkiller, drink some water and we're going shopping. Together. André can accompany us and be threatening. This is our town, and nobody runs a Darcy girl out of her town."

Mina nodded obediently, swallowed some ibuprofen, and drank a cup of coffee. Then they sat in the cool, air-conditioned car, until the combo kicked in.

There was a Regional Fair going on outside and Rose was determined to not allow anyone to spoil it for Mina. Her sister had worked her butt off to prepare the Pemberley stall for the Fair and she bloody well deserved to have a nice afternoon. Without anyone nagging her.

"You're such a good sister," Mina mumbled, leaning on her. "I absolutely adore you, Rose Darcy."

"Mhm. And I'll take care of you, until that big soldier boy of yours is back home for your wedding day."

#

####

August

####

She rubbed her nose to chase away the ghost of an oncoming migraine and swallowed with effort as one of the vendor representatives moved closer to her desk. The man smelled of stale cigar smoke and plastic and leather cleaner--

She couldn't even breathe through her mouth because she could _feel_ the smell sticking to her teeth and tongue.

The elevator pinged and everyone turned to face it, some immediately addressing the boss as soon as he stepped out.

The boss who ignored them completely.

Passing by the contractors and clients, dodging Stacy--

Striding straight to Mina.

She swallowed against the wave of nausea.

The worst day ever for her body to decide it didn't like the morning tea anymore.

Worst day _ever_.

Dad dropped into a crouch in front of her, drawing her hands into his.

"Minnie-- Kitten--"

Dad _never_ called her that. Rose and Mom, yes. Dad, no.

Her phone buzzed.

"Ducky, no, don't pick this up. I need to tell you, Richard just called me, you-- Let's go to my office?"

She glanced at the phone.

Unknown number.

Her stomach spasmed.

Dad's hands were shaking where he was holding hers.

"What--?"

"Richard just called me to tell you. Teddy-- there was an explosion."


End file.
